[van-announce] Lower the Fares Now Campaign Launch

[Bus Riders Union]

BUS RIDERS UNION

PUBLIC MEETING AND CAMPAIGN LAUNCH

Saturday, April 30, 2 - 4 PM  /  Vancouver Public Library (350 W. Georgia St.)  /  Peter Kay Room

Lower the Fares Now!  For Community Health and Social Justice

The Bus Riders Union is pleased to announce the launch of our new Campaign: Lower the Fares Now! For Community Health and Social Justice. The campaign will be launched at a Public Meeting on Saturday, April 30th, from 2 - 4 PM at the Vancouver Public Library. We will be working to build enough grassroots community action and pressure to force TransLink to lower the fare back to the pre-January 2005 fare hike level, by the end of the year. We will also organize to keep up pressure on TransLink to buy more buses to meet the needs of transit dependent communities, to make all buses in the region accessible, and to implement a clean air strategy based on a major increase in Trolley and low-emissions buses.

TransLink's Priorities: Good for big business, bad for bus riders

TransLink's decision to raise the fares yet again at the beginning of the year and to triple the fine for "fare violations" to $150 is a clear attack on the right of low-income communities to mobility. Transit-dependent people, who are majority women and disproportionately people of colour and Aboriginal people, are being driven deeper into poverty by TransLink's neoliberal policies which prioritize the profits of big corporations like SNC-Lavalin over the human rights of bus riders to mobility, dignity and health. Over the next decade SNC-Lavalin will make millions off the privatization of our public transit system while bus riders face rising fares, increased criminalization, and cuts to vital bus routes in order to pay for the RAV line.

The Health of Our Communities Depends on Accessible Public Transit

As clearly documented in the BRU's 2004 Women in Transit report, access to public transit is an important determinant of health for low-income communities and for transit-dependent women in particular. Access to transit shapes transit-dependent women's ability to access health care, child care, family, employment, social networks and cultural, religious & community events. The Lower the Fares Now! campaign is a grassroots campaign for public health. We call on TransLink to fulfil its responsibility to promote public health.  By demanding more buses, lower fares, accessibility, and a clean air strategy we are calling for health for our communities.

Building a Grassroots Campaign for Public Health and Social Justice

The alternative to TransLink's continued privatization, corporatization and dismantlement of our public transit system is a movement of bus riders organized and mobilized enough to force TransLink to make social justice and public health the top priorities. With over 600 members, thousands of supporters, and a four year track record of organizing, educating and mobilizing for social justice, the Bus Riders Union is working to build a movement that can challenge the neoliberal agenda represented by TransLink and win concrete gains for our communities. Please join us as we launch our new campaign and enter a hot summer of organizing and action.
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