On Tuesday, December 9, transit riders, workers, and advocates gathered in the cold at Queen St Station in Lancaster to turn up the temperature on transit funding for Red Rose Transit.
Two-dozen people joined Rep. Nikki Rivera (PA-96) and the team of Rep. Ismail Smith-Wade-El (PA-49) to illustrate the threat facing riders and workers in Lancaster, and how it connects to our broader fight for public transportation in every corner of Pennsylvania.
This year, Red Rose raided $4million from its fixed-route operations budget to maintain federally-required shared-ride and paratransit service, echoing the crisis facing every agency in the Commonwealth. For its basic operations, the Lancaster agency hits its “fiscal cliff” in the next fiscal year, triggering service cuts and fare increases in January 2027 – well before the “two years” promised by Governor Shapiro and legislators.
While SEPTA and PRT were able to “flex” capital dollars to avoid service cuts, no such opportunity exists for Red Rose Transit and its parent South Central Transit Authority.
“Without proper funds, [we] cannot improve service for riders…without an increase in funding, we will have to start looking at cutting service,” said Greg Downing, Executive Director of South Central Transit Authority, which operates Red Rose Transit in Lancaster County and Berks Area Regional Transportation Authority (BARTA) in Berks County.
The agency is cleareyed about what is at stake. And similarly for VisionCorps, located across the street from Queen St Station, without transit it can neither get its workers into the office to make straps for military helmets, nor provide skills-training for its blind and low-vision clients from across the region.
“It’s extremely important; without public transportation I would not be able to get to and from work,” said Katarina Eller, Orientation and Mobility Specialist with VisionCorps.
To make it all run, we need operators, who just won a new contract providing them much-needed raises and improved benefits.
“We keep this community rolling. We know that our passengers rely on our service and that we need to be out there [driving]. Speaking for the workers, we want to be out there, providing the safest, most courteous, and timely service that we can provide for our passengers,” added Patty McKenna emphatically, President, ATU Local 1241, representing Red Rose’s operators.
Despite a budget passing with no new funding for public transit in PA, we know our fight is far from over. Thus, this rally in Lancaster serves as a kickoff to our organizing ahead, including a planned fellowship program for riders and workers in Lancaster and elsewhere.
