D.C. City Council member Charles Allen wants to make bus and train travel free in the nation's capital. The plan would also create a $10 million equity and service improvement fund, he says. Public transit ridership is down 90% since the global COVID-19 pandemic was declared last year. A lot of people did not want to return to the office even though their employers wanted them to do so because they were scared to use transit for work.
Transit agencies nationwide are facing an existential crisis. Washington, DC’s city council has a paradoxical solution: make subways and buses free.
This episode was produced by Amanda Lewellyn, edited by Matt Collette, fact-checked by Laura Bullard, engineered by Paul Robert Mounsey, and hosted by Sean Rameswaram. Additional help from Miles Bryan and Jolie Myers.
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