(SILVER SPRING, MARYLAND) - The Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) says a Republican Party Platform proposal to cut mass transit funding from the Highway Trust Fund is an “out of touch, right wing, extremist stance that would jeopardize the safety and mobility of millions of riders who rely on public transit each day.”

ATU International President Larry Hanley said: “This GOP platform proposal would be a ‘death blow’ to public transportation, pushing our ‘already cash-strapped, crumbling’ transit systems ‘back decades.’  People will board twenty-year-old buses ‘held together with spit and glue’ and transfer to subway, light rail, and commuter rail systems ‘running on ancient tracks, rusty nuts and bolts, and antiquated signal equipment.’  It would be a ‘complete disaster’ for safety and service."

The Republican platform reads: “We propose to remove from the Highway Trust Fund programs that should not be the business of the Federal Government.  One fifth of its funds are spent on mass transit, an inherently local affair that serves only a small portion of the population, concentrated in six big cities.” 

If realized, ATU Representatives say the move would “eliminate critical federal investment that keeps service on the street, creates jobs and helps repair and upgrade our public transit infrastructure.”

“The GOP is ‘out of touch’ with everyday Americans when it comes to transit,” Hanley said. “It’s ‘not just’ big cities where many Americans - especially seniors, people with disabilities and low income families – ‘depend on’ buses and subways each day.  From Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to Mobile Alabama and Seattle, Washington to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, ‘more and more’ transit-dependent Americans are being ‘stranded’ at bus stops and rail stations due to budget cuts.  Our government is spending two billion dollars a week to fight wars and rebuild cities ‘halfway across the world,’ while ‘our own cities and their transit systems get worse by the day.’  This GOP platform proposal ‘takes us nowhere but backwards.’”

Added Hanley: "Americans ‘want reliable and affordable’ public transportation that can ‘get them safely’ to and from work, school, the doctor and other daily tasks.  The GOP wants millions of transit-dependent people to ‘lose their ride, their job, and their dignity.’  Voters will ‘remember that in November.’”

To Directly Access This Labor News Story, Go to: www.atu.org/media/releases/atu-blasts-gop-platform-recommendation-to-strip-transit-from-highway-trust-fund