ATU: House Surface Transportation Bill Will Greatly Improve Public Transit Safety, Boost Ridership in Near Term

But Union Expresses Great Concerns about Future Without Drivers on Board

Silver Spring, MD - The House Surface Transportation Bill will increase transit funding, improve safety for transit workers and riders, and invest in workforce training, says the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU), the largest union representing transit workers in North America, in applauding the legislation However, the bill's section on autonomous buses fails to require a fallback safety driver in public transportation, an existential threat to our membership and to the safety of transit riders everywhere.

"With its focus on strong funding, safety, and workforce development, the BUILD America 250 Act - Building Unrivaled Infrastructure and Long-term Development for America's 250^th Act - will provide a huge boost to public transportation," said ATU International President John Costa. "The bill recognizes the important role that public transportation plays in getting Americans to work, school, the grocery store, and everywhere in between."

The bill invests nearly $88 billion for transit over five years, an increase from the nearly $70 billion allocated in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA).

The legislation includes ATU's highest legislative priority, protecting bus operators from assault. Each year, incredibly, there are more than 16,000 reported incidents of transit workers being attacked on the job. That's more than 40 assaults each day. The ATU has been calling for the inclusion of bipartisan legislation (HR 6635), introduced by Reps. Shomari Figures and Jeff Van Drew, which requires new transit buses to be equipped with fully enclosed bus operator workstations to keep unauthorized people out of the drivers' area. In Los Angeles, where the agency recently retrofitted its entire fleet with fully enclosed barriers, assaults have plummeted. We expect the same result nationwide if this bill passes.

"Our members are under constant attack. They get spit on, punched, stabbed, shot, hijacked, sexually assaulted, and more," Costa continued. "We are extremely grateful for Chairman Graves' and Ranking Member Larsen's inclusion of this critical language requiring fully enclosed bus barriers in the surface bill."

The new bill also has language submitted by the ATU to beef up funding for security throughout the transit systems, including operations funding for "transit support specialists" who will be responsible for performing a variety of duties designed to provide an added sense of security.

"The extra security personnel will significantly upgrade safety all across our systems, giving passengers peace of mind to ride public transit," Costa continued. "We thank Representatives Laura Friedman and Lateefah Simon for championing this issue through their own separate bills."

Also, in the area of safety, the Committee wisely kept intact the game-changing labor-management safety committees which play a key role in the development and approval of Congressionally mandated Public Transportation Agency Safety Plans (PTASPs). "These committees provide a critical voice for workers regarding safety on transit systems. Our members are the eyes and ears of our nation's transit systems. Maintaining their role on the safety committees is the right move," Costa said.

Finally, in the BUILD America 250 Act, Congress for the first time has decided to invest in "Human Capital," the knowledge, talents, skills, abilities, experience, intelligence, training, judgment, and wisdom of frontline transit workforce. The Committee codified the Transit Workforce Center (TWC). Since 2021, TWC has provided direct technical assistance to transit agencies to advance workforce development to train and retain frontline transit workers. The ATU is grateful for Rep. Frederica Wilson's leadership on this issue.

"While we feel good about the next few years in transit thanks to this bill, the BUILD America 250 Act unfortunately leaves our future very much in doubt. The legislation recklessly green-lights autonomous buses but notably does not include a requirement for a fallback safety driver in transit," Costa continued. "This will put millions of American transit riders in harms' way, barreling down the road with their lives in the hands of robots."

While the bill wisely requires a driver on autonomous school buses and hazmat vehicles, for some reason, transit riders, including the elderly and people with disabilities, are not handed a lifeline for the inevitable occasion when technology fails. This is a critical omission that must be addressed.

"The ATU calls on the Committee to provide a lifeline and a safety net for U.S. transit riders by requiring a qualified human operator on board. We look forward to working with the Committee to address this issue. It has done a fine job in upgrading transit safety and security in the near term. We urge Congress to also look at the long term and provide for safety on the buses of the future. After all, transit is powered by people," said Costa