Senate Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill will provide robust transit funding and long overdue safety measures for transit workers

After years of advocating for better safety protections for our members and more transit funding to keep our communities moving, the ATU’s efforts have paid off with the Senate passing the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, the largest long-term investment in our transit systems in history.

“The bipartisan infrastructure bill between the Senate and the White House is welcomed and is a considerable step forward in meeting our nation’s transit and infrastructure needs,” said International President John Costa. “By including $39 billion for transit, the Senate has put forth the highest level of transit funding in the history of the program.”

In addition to funding, the bill will also address the epidemic of violent assaults on transit workers that has plagued our country’s transit systems by including language from the Transit Worker and Pedestrian Protection Act in the bill. The ATU has fought for years for better protections for our members who have been the victims of vicious attacks by riders for far too long. “We appreciate the bipartisan support and recognition that attacks on transit workers is a problem that has been ignored for many years,” said Costa. “Not a week goes by that we don’t hear a story about a transit worker being punched, spit on, verbally abused, sexually assaulted, stabbed, or worse by passengers. The provisions in this bipartisan bill will help protect our members and prevent attacks and fatalities in the future.”

Also included in the bill is $5 billion for vehicle electrification. The ATU has been pushing for a frontline transit worker training center to ensure we can train workers to fix, maintain, and operate the electric vehicles. Workforce training for our members is essential to making this unprecedented investment in bus electrification a success. The ATU will be advocating for more training for transit workers to be included in reconciliation, the process for getting tax and spending bills through Congress.

“We applaud President Biden and the Senate leadership for working together to pass this bill that will invigorate our nation’s transit systems, fix our crumbling infrastructure, protect our transit workers, and keep our communities and economies moving,” said Costa. v