Photo of HRT bus. by Hampton Roads Transit used with permission.

With COVID-19 taking a toll on public transportation across the country, it is critical now more than ever that transit advocates employ a winning strategy on behalf of better bus service. By teaming up with Virginia Organizing (VO), riders in Newport News mounted a year-long campaign to improve their commutes and have made waves in this coastal city with a surprising strategy of being “polite and persistent.”

A nearly perfect storm for terrible transit

After logging an almost unbelievable 18,653 missed trips in 2018, riders all across the 757 region have reason to complain about Hampton Roads Transit (HRT). So why did grassroots momentum break out in Newport News?

Public transportation in Newport News, Virginia’s fifth largest city, faces a broad set of challenges — many are representative of the region as a whole but some are unique to the northernmost of the “Seven Cities.”

With bus operators in short supply and many vehicles in the fleet over 25 years old, reliability is a huge problem for HRT. In one week alone last year, the region’s transit service recorded over 200 missed trips. Even worse, the most frequent bus route in Newport News only runs once every 45 minutes.

The geography of the city doesn’t help either. Although Newport News is just six miles wide, its territory stretches so far up the Upper Peninsula that a drive from end to end can take an hour and a half on an average day. What’s more, HRT’s many north-south routes only intersect at two spots in the whole system leaving riders pitifully few chances to transfer if they need to travel east-west.

757 regional map by HRT.

Begging for the basics

Last year, one member’s perpetual tardiness to VO meetings due to delayed or missed connections triggered a conversation about the state of transit in Newport News. After another member who is a manager at a local hospital shared that many of her nurses miss their shifts due to the same problems, the city’s VO chapter set out to fight for better bus service.

With less than two percent of the population in Hampton Roads taking transit to get around, organizing a winning coalition looked like an uphill battle at first. But after many conversations with local riders, Ciera Killen, VO’s lead organizer in Newport News and Hampton, was convinced that the city’s bus service desperately needed a change. “Plenty of people here don’t ride the bus and are homebound because the bus is infrequent, unreliable, and doesn’t come to their neighborhood,” she said.

VO’s vision for better transit:

  • All bus routes should run at least once every 30 minutes.
  • Service hours should be extended to 2 a.m. to accommodate night shifts and evening classes.
  • Buses should run just as frequently on weekends and holidays.
  • Driver retention should be a priority to boost the system’s reliability.
  • Riders deserve better bus tracking and real-time arrival information.
  • North-south routes need four more points for people to transfer east-west.

By releasing a concise and reasonable list of demands, VO hopes to trigger a culture change in the city that puts the needs of people ahead of the fantasy that transit should turn a profit. “We’re trying to advance the idea that transportation is a public good,” said Killen. “How to make money off of transit isn’t the conversation we should be having. It’s more important that people can get to work, healthcare, and their kids’ daycare than it is to make a profit.”

Persistent politics

To move the needle on public transportation in Newport News, Killen worked with VO members to build out a “long-term local organizing force.” So far, her coalition has sat down with five of the city’s seven councilors, secured a meeting with the city manager, and even raised their concerns with the CEO of HRT, William E. Harrell.

VO’s letters to the editor, speeches in front of City Council, and peaceful protests along major roads certainly caught the attention of Newport News Councilwoman Pat Woodbury. “This whole time, Virginia Organizing has been persistent, polite, and constructive,” she said in an interview. “They aren’t screaming and angry; they’re just factual. They’re a protest group trying to make things better and they are. What gets people’s attention in government especially is persistence.”

Protest of HRT. by Virginia Organizing used with permission.

While many previous plans to fix HRT floundered due to a lack of funding, VO and Councilwoman Woodbury hope this time will be different. The addition of Hampton Road’s first taste of dedicated transit funding should help although those operating dollars are limited to interjurisdictional routes. A possible $60 million grant from the federal government could also prove to be a game-changer.

The success of VO’s campaign for better bus service in Newport News has injected newfound energy into HRT’s plans for up to thirteen bus rapid transit lines across the region. To keep the momentum going, Killen has already begun laying the groundwork for a similar campaign to expand transit in the neighboring city of Hampton.

Councilwoman Woodbury, for one, wishes Killen and her team of organizers success. “I think we underestimate the number of people who rely on transit to get to work, doctor’s appointments, and wherever else they need to go” she said. “Folks don’t realize how transit is a crucial part of our government. I’m so grateful to VO for being advocates who work with and not against us to try and improve our bus service.”

Wyatt Gordon is the senior policy manager for land use and transportation at the Virginia Conservation Network, and an adjunct professor at Virginia Commonwealth University's Department of Urban Planning. He's a born-and-raised Richmonder with a master's in Urban Planning from the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa and a bachelor's in International Political Economy from American University.