This commentary is by Rick Morris, communications leader at the Vermont Sierra Club.
Imagine a Vermont where you could hop on the local commuter train in Jamaica for your job in Rutland. Where you could ride the rails up to Stowe for a day of skiing and return on the same line to Waterbury or Barre in time for dinner.
Up until the 1930s, our whole state was connected by convenient rail lines — from Sheldon and Grand Isle in the northwest to Bennington in the southeast, and from Vernon in the southwest all the way up to Burke and Island Pond in the northeast.
Soon the Rockefellers, the Fords and the like would begin a lobbying campaign all across the nation to rip up train tracks and tear down streetcar wires in favor of paving wide swaths of land and selling more of their cars and their oil.
As a consequence, last year Gov. Scott signed a transportation budget of over $860 billion, the vast majority of which is going to building and maintaining highways and roadways for car and truck traffic.
Not only is our state budget pinched by pavement madness, but so are our families. Today, the average household spends more money on transportation each month than any other expense besides rent or a mortgage.
The good news is, there’s hope. For the last two years during the pandemic, Vermont has followed other states in providing for Fare Free Transit — meaning that you could ride public buses for free.
That program is on the chopping block, as are plans to expand our transit system, by the transit board citing fuel costs and “break even” targets.
But we know that those fuel costs hit families even harder. Beyond that, the services we provide for each other through our state aren’t supposed to “make a profit” or “break even” — it would be absurd to ask whether a library breaks even, or if our public schools make a profit. They exist because our communities are better for having them.
Together, we can make change.
In 1955, Rosa Parks fought for transit equity — dignified and accessible transportation for all — and helped to set off the Civil Rights Movement. Now, in honor of her life each year, we come together in the first week of February for Transit Equity Day. This year’s observance was Feb. 8.
On Vermont’s Transit Equity Day, we joined with activists, organizers, innovators and leaders to learn how we can make a Vermont that’s accessible to all with clean, affordable transportation options. You can learn more here.
