“On behalf of the more than 1,500 members of the American Public Transportation Association, I applaud President Obama for putting transportation infrastructure investment, including public transportation and high-speed rail, on the national agenda yesterday in his speech in Milwaukee.
I commend the president’s vision of a world class infrastructure system and his call to enact a new, six-year transit and highway authorization bill which expands public transit systems, dedicates significant new funds to the New Starts program, and commits to building on the previously announced investments in high-speed and intercity passenger rail.
The proposed up-front investment of $50 billion will jumpstart job creation and is a good first step toward addressing our country’s high unemployment. For every $1 billion invested in U.S. public transportation, 36,000 jobs are supported and created. Also, the introduction of high-speed rail is creating a new industry of jobs for America’s workers.
This authorization legislation can’t happen fast enough. It will put Americans back to work to build and maintain our country’s woefully underfunded transportation infrastructure.”
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The American Public Transportation Association (APTA) is a nonprofit international association of 1,500 public and private member organizations, engaged in the areas of bus, paratransit, light rail, commuter rail, subways, waterborne services, and intercity and high-speed rail. This includes: transit systems; planning, design, construction, and finance firms; product and service providers; academic institutions; transit associations and state departments of transportation. More than 90 percent of the people using public transportation in the United States and Canada are served by APTA member systems.