Please see the press release below received by the District 3 Office :
After MAX Workers and Riders Hold Transit Forum Ahead of Service Cuts, Aug. 21
(6:00 PM, Saint Paul United Methodist Church – 1500 Sixth Avenue North, Birmingham, AL 35204)
Media Contact: Greg Roddy – 407-625-3242
Birmingham, AL - The following are the cuts intended by MAX (BJCTA), word for word, which was circulated at a recent BJCTA Board meeting:
- 25 Intra-Birmingham Routes replaced with 10 routes that are limited in their coverage and service span
- Routes that span from 4AM to 12AM to 6-9AM and 2-6PM
- Saturday services for these routes will be eliminated
- 212,000 Service Hours will be reduced to 49,000
- The result will be a large surplus of operators that will be laid off
- Rather than coming directly into Birmingham, as most of these routes currently do, they will drop riders off on other routes forcing transfers
In response to the announced service cuts by MAX (BJCTA), the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 725, disability community advocates, Birmingham transit riders, and Greater Birmingham Ministries will hold the Forum in Defense of Transit to speak out for fair and just public transit for Birmingham transit riders.
The forum will be at 6:00 PM Tuesday, August 21st at Saint Paul United Methodist Church (1500 Sixth Avenue North, Birmingham, AL 35204).
After years of turmoil at the BJCTA Board, the agency is threatening a massive 75% reduction in service by this September, resulting in worker layoffs and Birminghamians without a means to get to where they need to go.
This comes in reaction to Mayor Randall Woodfin’s intention to withhold half of the BJCTA’s allotted $10.8 million in funding and release on the condition that the BJCTA Board get its act together. Yet workers and riders are being caught in the middle of the political infighting and being made to suffer for it.
Among the demands of MAX workers and riders are the complete stop to the announced cuts, full funding for the transit system, no worker layoffs, and an end to workers and riders being held hostage from the political infighting.