Campaign Emphasizes Vital Role of Public Transportation in Pandemic Recovery and Risk to New York
Video Available Here
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) today launched new digital ads as part of the #SaveTransit campaign that highlights the agency’s urgent need for $12 billion in federal funding as it weathers the most severe financial crisis in its history. The new #SaveTransit ads, which were created entirely in-house by MTA employees, will be distributed widely across social media channels and also include video content and in-system messaging on digital screens and on buses throughout the system.
“The MTA simply cannot wait any longer for relief from Washington,” said Patrick J. Foye, MTA Chairman and CEO. “New York’s economic future, and the country’s, relies on a strong MTA powering progress. If the Senate fails to step up and deliver $12 billion, it would be a devastating blow to mass transit as we know it. We need action now, and the more we can amplify this message, the better.”
The start of the campaign came on the same day in which the MTA outlined a series of potentially devastating service cuts, fare and toll increases, headcount reductions as well as gutting its historic $51.5 billion Capital Plan at a special August Board Meeting. The cuts would be carried out in the absence of the $12 billion in desperately needed federal funding from Congress. The MTA is facing the worst financial crisis in its history and subways, buses, Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North ridership is experiencing greater declines than in the aftermath of the Great Depression.
View the new ad here.
The digital ad script is available below:
"Without federal funding, public transit in New York won’t survive.
"Without public transit, New York doesn’t work.
"#SaveTransit"