In 2023, TBC began the celebration of our first decade of service to American bus transit systems and the communities they serve. This report chronicles our Coalition's work and shares stories of impact in four major categories of impact, including:
Ed Redfern and a close group of transit CEOs formed The Bus Coalition in March 2013 at the APTA Legislative Conference as a response to an existential threat to many bus transit systems.
Prior to 2012, the 5339 Bus and Bus Facilities Program accounts allocated $986 million annually to a competitive grants process administered by the Federal Transit Administration, the 5339 grants. These grants served as a lifeline to bus-focused transit agencies in growing communities across the country.
However, due to fiscal challenges faced by the nation’s largest legacy rail systems, MAP-21 contained provisions that re-allocated over 3/4ths of those funds to rail-focused transit accounts, leaving just $420 million for 5339 grants. Making matters worse for the vast majority of bus transit systems, the 5339 program was converted to a formula program at the same formula apportionment as the 5307 program—meaning the vast majority of the formula funds went the largest transit systems in the United States.
Seeing that MAP-21 was a short, two-year Reauthorization Act—thereby limiting the time frame in which these bus funding cuts would remain in effect—and the energetic response of many like-minded bus leaders across country who felt other advocacy groups were insufficiently concerned with 5339 funding—Ed and a band of colleagues began plans to organize an advocacy organization dedicated to the needs of bus transit, the backbone of the American public transit fleet.
The initial TBC dinner, held at the Spring APTA Legislative Conference in March 2013, was attended by 37 transit agencies, demonstrating a viable national network and sufficient support to launch the organization’s active legislative work.
Bus Coalition members were recruited, and in 2014, TBC started collecting modest membership dues and expanding membership. The coalition also formalized the Board, expanding it to 15 members and focusing on identifying Transit Agency members who hail from states with Congressional representatives who serve on key bus funding committees.
The Bus Coalition was formed as a 501( c )( 6 ) non-profit, which allowed for the organization to be involved in legislative advocacy and direct lobbying efforts in Washington DC in 2015. That year, the Bus Coalition also claimed its first victory when the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act added over $1 billion to the Bus and Bus Facility Program and restored the 5339 discretionary grant program. Subsequently, TBC started advocating a “Plus Up” strategy in 2016. This effort resulted in year-over-year 5339 funding at a level approximately $400 million above the authorized funding level through 2022.
With the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law/Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, the Coalition successfully worked to increase bus funding to over $2 billion per year. This level of funding was needed to address the decade of previous underinvestment in bus transit.
Today, the Bus Coalition Board consists of 150 paying member organizations, 900 active individual members and 21 Board Members, all of which are CEOs or GMs of publicly funded transit operator organizations across the nation. The Bipartisan Congressional Bus Caucus has grown to 28 members of Congress, with nearly equal representation from both major political parties. TBC successfully advocated for over $8 billion in new bus capital funding in recent years.
Over the years, the Bus Coalition Board has been asked to consider expanding advocacy to other funding and transit topics, such as FTA–5307, but each time the Board has reaffirmed that the Bus Coalition exists for the sole purpose of protecting and increasing FTA-5339 funding.
