Addressing the Workforce Shortage: Invest in Transit Equity; Invest in Transit Workers (Leadership APTA 2022)

The transit industry is experiencing an increasing number of workforce recruitment and retention challenges. The industry must respond to growth in demands for service and to increasingly high consumer expectations about quality of service.

Our goal is to recruit, train and retain the transit industry’s most essential workforce i.e., frontline employees including transit operators by utilizing an equity-focused approach.

The project strategies focus on expanding opportunities to youth, offering second-chance programs, especially communities of color and expanding workforce benefits to address biggest challenge faced by women i.e., caregiving responsibilities: 

• Changing Operator’s Driver License age from 21 to 18
• Incarceration to employment (second chance program)
• Bringing women back to workforce by offering childcare/household services

Project Team:

• Meghna Khanna (coordinator) LA Metro
• Ammee Alvior (San Francisco MTA)
• Thomas Getachew (King County Metro)
• Toan Tran (Livermore Amador Valley Transit Authority)
• Wytangy Peak (Birmingham-Jefferson County Transit Authority)