On June 8, 2021, Rep.Hank Johnson(D-GA) proposed  The Building Stronger Communities Through Transit Act. The bill aims to invest money from the federal government into the nation’s public transit agencies for operating budgets.

The bill would provide $20B/year for 4 years toward agencies and agencies would be required to spend that money on projects that  make ‘’substantial improvements to transit service-that directly boosts the frequency of buses, trains, and increases routes.’’ The objective of the bill is to provide more frequent bus and rail service to cities as well as prioritize service to areas with poor service, disadvantaged communities, and areas of extreme poverty.  The bill also creates a new formula grant program to support the operating costs of public transit as well as certain capital costs. In addition to providing money to transit agencies the bill will clearly define funding for areas of ‘’persistent poverty’’ and ‘’underserved communities’’.Rep. Johnson mentioned that the bill could give agencies the means to ‘’substantial improvements to transit service’’. He also said, ‘’“ransit in our communities is as essential as food on our tables, clothes on our backs, and a roof over our heads’’.

That last statement is especially true for all New Yorkers whether they use mass transit or not.

55 percent of New Yorkers do not own vehicles and use public transit as their primary means of getting around. Even for those that do have vehicles, they have co-workers that do. Some are teachers and most of their students use transit to get to class every day. Others own businesses or work in businesses in which customers can only access their business by transit. Even more importantly, if everyone who used transit in NYC had a car, that would more than double traffic in NYC and make getting around close to impossible. It is clear that Hank Johnson recognizes the impact transit has on communities and congress is finally getting set to take action to invest in transit in a nation with a major focus on automobiles. It is also clear that Hank Johnson recognizes the opportunities the impact transit could have on climate change and the need for public transportation to receive equal investments that our nation’s highways receive. House Representatives, Schakowsky (IL-09), Garcia (IL-04), Huffman (CA-02), Pressley (MA-07), Espaillat (NY-13), Carson (IN-07), Grijalva (AZ-03), Blumenauer (OR-03), McEachin (VA-04), Auchincloss (MA-04), Blunt Rochester (DE), Jayapal (WA-07), all of whom are democrats have co-sponsored the bill. Adriano Espaillat, whose district covers most of Manhattan north of 96th street and parts of the Bronx has made numerous pushed for transit in the past including his Transportation Alternatives Enhancement Act, which objective was to improve the current Transportation Alternatives Act to better invest in walking and biking infrastructure and the Streets Safer and Encourage Environmentally Friendly Transportation(SAFE Act) is designed to make streets safe for pedestrians and cyclists. He also advocated for more funding for the MTA in the recently passed senate federal infrastructure bill. I

The Building Stronger Communities Through Transit Act would give the MTA $80 Billion dollars and the agency would be able to use this money to turn the tide on its fast-forward capital plan and build an even more modern, sustainable, and reliable transit network. The agency’s current capital program is set to cost $54.8 billion dollars over the next 4 years, the program is currently set to completely redesign the bus network in each borough, modernize signals, build megaprojects, maintain the agency’s bridges and tunnels and maintain the agency’s aging infrastructure, some of which is over 100 years old. Our most lucrative funding idea for the system, congestion pricing, is only expected to bring in a measly amount of $1B/year for the same purpose compared to the bill which would give the MTA $20 Billion. Since we’ll have about $30 Billion dollars still left over after this bill, it’s possible we could see an even more ambitious capital program, one to increase frequencies of buses and subways as well as add more bus routes to the system, and add infrastructure programs we’ve dreamed of for years. Imagine every bus or subway in NYC coming every 5 minutes, 24/7. People who must take the subway at late night hours will have safer and faster trips home. They will not have to wait on platforms for long periods of time at night or outdoors for buses in the frigid cold of an NYC winter. Express services such as the 2 and 5 trains can make their daytime stops in Manhattan, making a faster commute for those working overnight as express trains can only run if there is another train to run local stops. People who live in locations far from the subway in NYC like Throgs Neck or Riverdale in the Bronx would no longer have to worry about enormously long walks just to get home or to work when a bus isn’t running and would be linked faster to the subways and buses in nearby transit hubs.  Even people who don’t usually deal with the issue of low transit frequency would reap the benefits of accessibility. This money in the bill would be enough to increase accessibility on some subway stations were building an elevator is possible but building an elevator hasn’t been started. New bus routes can be built to bridge gaps in the transit system where there is no transit service such as along The Throgs Neck Bridge and RFK(Triboro Bridge) between the Bronx and Queens. Subways along high-density streets such as Jewel Ave and Northern Blvd in Queens, Third Ave in the Bronx, Utica and Nostrand Ave in Brooklyn, and more.  This would allow these areas to further develop, receive more foot traffic, and help businesses open to build our regional economy. This would also increase access to the Manhattan Central Business District for these neighborhoods and reduce commute times that are otherwise spent on express buses on highways such as the Long Island, Gowanus, and Bruckner Expressways in traffic as well as trying to navigate local streets to and from these highways.

This is of course no current plan of what MTA would plan to do with an extra $30 Billion dollars added to their capital plan and the MTA receiving this money is no guarantee. Unfortunately according to govtrack.us,the bill only has a 3 percent chance of being enacted into law. For this bill to pass, it would have to first pass the House Transportation and Infrastructure committee before being sent to the house floor, and only 10 of 59 members of the committee have co-sponsored it as of September 2021. The number of co-sponsorships a bill has is a key indicator of whether or not it will be passed.  The investment would be a huge boost to the MTA and its capital plan, however as of now it sits in the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.