Activists with the Amalgamated Transit Union and Music City Riders United protested with drums, signs and a microphone outside Music City Central to send a strong message.
Organizers called it the Transit Equity Day of Action and paid homage to Rosa Parks and the actions demanded by her community after she was arrested in 1955.
On Monday, the group wanted to continue the fulfillment of Parks vision by demanding immediate improvements for transit equity in Nashville. On the top of the list is bus safety, followed by better workforce development.
According to members of the ATU union, training deficits cause a lot of bus delays and can lead to unsafe conditions for the employees and passengers. They also want to hold MTA accountable for ensuring the maintenance team in fully staffed, citing that understaffing means more bus breakdowns. All this is happening while metro council works to figure out what's next for Mayor Barry's 5 billion dollar transit plan.
“Even with this transit plan, they’re saying some of this money will go to these busses but they have money that is supposed to go to these busses and they don’t go,” MCRU member Kutonya Smith-Bond said.
An MTA spokesperson told News Channel 5 that MTA understands the concerns that were brought up and they're constantly working with the ATU to find resolutions to these issues.
