For Urban Transit, a Hostile Budget

Remember all those transit measures that won big at the polls in November? For many left-leaning urban voters, they represented a pinpoint of hope in a sky of GOP gloom. On both sides of the political aisle, some thought that the newly elected president would follow through on his bombast on infrastructure spending, the fabled $1 trillion investment to “build new roads, and highways, and bridges, and airports, and tunnels, and railways all across our wonderful nation.”

But where some heard opportunity, others sensed hot air. President Trump’s proposed federal budget blueprint confirms those anxieties: The Department of Transportation (DOT) is slated for a $2.4 billion cut. Urban transit systems, Amtrak corridors, and aviation networks should prepare for pain.