California Transportation Leaders Recommend Increasing State Transit Investments

In a time when Californians face climate, affordability, and public health crises, the state is still shortchanging funding for public transit service while considerable transportation dollars flow to projects that move us in the wrong direction. Public transit can provide Californians with safe, affordable, and climate-friendly transportation options, but without proper funding, transit systems across the state will not be able to provide the frequent trains and buses necessary to move our people and fuel our economy.

This week, the California State Transportation Agency delivered a report to the state legislature—informed by a state task force representing local governments, transit agencies, transit riders, labor, and academia—emphasizing the need for state leaders to dedicate new and enhanced funding sources to transit operations. Dubbed the Transit Transformation Task Force, the group was established in 2023 as part of a transit funding and reform effort. California’s elected leaders allocated $1.1 billion to transit agencies over four years and preserved another $4 billion over two years. Acknowledging that these stopgap measures were not sustainable, the legislature convened the task force to identify long-term funding solutions.

Public transit is a vital resource. NRDC research shows that more than 35 percent of Californians cannot or do not rely on cars for daily travel. Millions of people in the state cannot drive, including children, people with disabilities, people who cannot afford cars, and the growing population of older adults. Other Californians could drive but choose to limit their driving, recognizing the huge cost of driving in terms of household finances, climate change, and public health. 

Support for public transit extends beyond just riders. From the labor unions who build and operate transit to the businesses that rely on transit systems to bring in customers and employees, a growing coalition recognizes the need to increase transit investment.

California needs to grow its transit systems

While state action has helped avert massive service cuts in an era of public transit budget shortfalls, the task force members made it clear that the status quo is insufficient. To properly serve riders, California needs to expand and improve transit service. 

California’s current transit budget is insufficient to give riders the service they deserve. The task force makes several key recommendations to shore up state funding for transit. These include identifying new statewide funding sources, making it easier for transit agencies and regional governments to get funding measures on the ballot, and exercising the state’s wide discretion to reallocate funding from harmful highway expansions toward transit that connects communities.

The Transit Transformation Task Force recommendations lay the groundwork for a more transit-forward future. Now the state must act to bring these recommendations to reality.