transportation

By Ron Kaminkow - Class Struggle Action Network, May 28, 2024

By Caroline Drischel, Todd Smith, Nidhi Pant, Rachael Ross, and Hannah Boomgaarden - Safe Landing, May 20, 2024

By Finlay Asher - Safe Landing, May 9, 2024

By Union Jake and Mark Burrows - Valley Labor Report, April 11, 2024

By RMT Press Office - National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers, April 1, 2024

Rail union, RMT union has slammed ScotRail's decision to hike fares by 8.7% from April 1st, exactly two years since the railway came under public ownership.

This punitive price increase comes at a time when the Scottish Government itself is running a successful off-peak fares trial, effectively removing peak fares entirely.

RMT is calling on the Scottish Government to make this off-peak fares trial permanent, otherwise passengers face the return of significantly increased peak fares from June.

RMT General Secretary Mick Lynch said: "This fare hike is terrible news for ScotRail passengers and a betrayal of the promises made when public ownership was introduced. 

"The counter-productive move will push people back into their cars at a time when we desperately need to be encouraging a shift to sustainable and environmentally friendly public transport."

The RMT demands the Scottish Government make the off-peak fares trial permanent, preventing the return of extortionate peak fares from June. 

Failing to do so will have a negative impact on passenger usage of trains and endanger Scotland's climate change targets.

Mr Lynch added: "The Committee on Climate Change recently made it clear – Scotland's current approach to transport isn't delivering the emissions reductions needed. 

"Making rail affordable, accessible, and reliable is essential. 

"This fare increase undermines all of that. The Scottish Government needs to get serious about putting passengers and the planet first."

RMT urges the Scottish Government to act decisively to reverse this damaging fare hike and commit to long-term policies that make rail the natural choice for passengers, not an affordable luxury.

By Simon Pirani - The Ecologist, March 19, 2024

Fares for public transport around London should be abolished, says a new campaign briefing from Fare Free London.

Free public transport “opens the city to all” and should be “provided as a public service, just like health, education and public parks,” a new campaign briefing from Fare Free London argues.

And abolishing fares for public transport in London is “one of the drastic, demonstrative actions needed to tackle climate change globally and air pollution locally”. 

READ THE FAIR FREE LONDON BRIEFING NOW

Fare Free London, set up at a meeting of community, trade union and environmentalist activists this year, is calling on the city’s mayor to adopt the policy, and commission research on how to implement.

It urges national government to support the fare-free approach around the country, and change local government finance rules so that it can be paid for. 

By staff - Labor Network for Sustainability, March 1, 2024

To mark Climate Equity Day 2024, LNS Transit Organizer Bakari Height wrote in an Op Ed published in five newspapers:

For far too long, policymakers in Washington have prioritized highways and cars over public transit. This has devastating impacts not only for the climate crisis but on the budgets of local transit agencies and communities across the nation.

The fix?

>A new piece of legislation introduced last month by Congressman Hank Johnson from the Atlanta area would change that. The bill titled, “Stronger Communities through Better Transit Act” will provide high-quality transit to communities across the country.

A Newsweek op ed by John Samuelsen, international president of the Transport Workers Union and John Costa, international president of the Amalgamated Transit Union, explains how the Act would work:

The legislation would allocate $20 billion annually for four years, specifically so agencies could “make substantial improvements in transit service.” That’s $80 billion for operations, not capital projects.

>With such financial support, agencies could significantly boost their current schedules and run buses and trains more frequently. They could robustly extend the hours of operation on routes and lines that now are shut down for the night. And they could add entirely new service, like a local or express bus route, in tragically underserved neighborhoods.

>

For Height’s full op ed: https://chicagocrusader.com/honor-rosa-parks-not-through-words-but-action/ 

For Samuelsen and Costa’s full op ed: https://www.newsweek.com/working-people-need-congress-fund-mass-transit-opinion-1866491 

By Tom Heap - Climate Cast, February 9, 2024

By Todd Smith - Safe Landing, January 28, 2024

By Union Jake, Adam, and Matt Weaver - Valley Labor Report, December 22, 2023