What happened to protecting the transit agencies from the fallout from the credit crisis? Fred Jandt of Mass Transit Magazine rails on Senator Max Baucus for trying to throw transit under the bus.
The nation’s biggest transit agencies took advantage of some innovative financing deals to bring in more revenue over the last decade. That’s responsible. WIth the credit crisis, however, the institution that insured these plans (AIG) went bellyup, leaving transit agencies in trouble and on the hook.
There’s $700 billion for banks to buy their troubled assets. But protecting transit agencies is not part of the mix. Instead, as Fred notes, it’s tacked onto the auto bailout bill and since that isn’t going to pass this year, transit agencies are left out in the cold for the rest of the year.
When Senator Chris Dodd is asking the car manufacturers why they don’t get back in the bus-building business (according to Fred’s column), we need the entire Congress supporting such far-thinking transit expansion policies, not putting transit at the back of the bus. Transit needs much more advocacy.
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