Metro Magazine, June 2020

METRO MAGAZINE COM JUNE 2020 Hello and hope you are yours are all well as we continue to wade through this difficult time On behalf of the METRO team I would like to first start by offering my condolences to the San Diego MTS team and the family of Paul Jablonski who suddenly passed away in May Jablonski was a long time advocate for transit led one of the premier agencies in the U S and will be greatly missed by his peers As transit continues to deliver essential service to people every day we would also like to acknowledge the operators and transit staff who have lost their lives due to the coronavirus The daily reminders of just how difficult a time we are living in are sobering and as advocates for the industry we are deeply saddened for the families of those that have been lost MORE FUNDS FOR TRANSIT As transit continues to provide service revenue from lost ridership and the new costs of keeping buses and railcars sanitized is having a significant impact on many agencies bottom line despite funding from the CARES ACT Because of this new reality APTA recently urged Congress and the Administration to provide 238 billion in additional emergency funding to offset the extraordinary direct costs and revenue losses caused by the crisis The funding would allow transit agencies across the country to continue to provide essential services and support the economic recovery of our communities and the nation As cities around the U S begin to slowly re open the funding would also enable transit agencies to plan for how they may begin to ramp up services as ridership begins to slowly return As Metrolink CEO Stephanie Wiggins mentions in this months cover story transit is learning from this COVID 19 experience to utilize technology and listen to customers as it begins to slowly ramp up Continued funding will be an essential piece to being able to get those services up and running FUNDING FOR MOTORCOACH Funding is also top priority for the motorcoach industry which has been hit particularly hard by this pandemic The ABA and UMA recently hosted a very successful Motorcoach Rolling Awareness Campaign which saw hundreds of motorcoaches representing 3000 companies across the U S and their 100000 employees loop around the nations capital with messages explaining the importance of the industry while asking Congress and the White House to extend economic relief to motorcoach companies The message may have been heard as several members of Congress recently came out in support of providing relief for the industry However we cannot ease up on getting the message out As Congress continues to discuss its next coronavirus relief package our industries are at the forefront in supporting this countrys economy and it is imperative that our voices are heard that they are essential in getting Americans to where they need to go Stay positive heathy and safe JAMES BLUE GENERAL MANAGER PUBLISHERS PAGE FUNDING IS VITAL FOR ESSENTIAL TRANSPORTATION PROVIDERS 36 The daily reminders of just how difficult a time we are living in are sobering and as advocates for the industry we are deeply saddened for the families of those that have been lost