On January 28th, the LA Metro board voted to fully restore bus service by the start of the new fiscal year in July. This win was the result of a concerted effort by transit advocates, grassroots organizers, and local residents working in coalition to center the voices of bus riders and gain political power at the LA Metro Board.

Earlier this week, the American Public Transportation Association requested $39.3 billion in relief funding to help transit agencies maintain service and withstand the financial impacts caused by COVID-19. A plan moving through in Congress would reserve about $30 billion for transit. And the Biden administration had earlier proposed $20 billion for transit in the next relief package. What should we make of these different proposals?

Before COVID-19 struck, LA Metro seemed to be turning a corner on bus service with the ambitious network redesign known as NextGen. But the new budget plan signals a return to the days when Metro regularly overlooked the bus riders who make the vast majority of trips on its services.

Millions of people across the country are at risk of losing access to good transit as the COVID pandemic grinds on and imposes an unprecedented fiscal crisis on the nation’s transit agencies.