News

ATTAIN Highlights Bus Maintenance Success Stories

Posted April 2023

More than 100 individuals representing labor and management from transit agencies across the country came together on March 28 for the latest bus maintenance committee meeting for the TWC’s American Transit Training and Apprenticeship Innovators Network (ATTAIN). The meeting included a presentation on the basics of registered apprenticeship, the benefits of bus maintenance apprenticeship, and how agencies can tie apprenticeship to federal funding opportunities.   

 

TWC contractor Maurice Beard moderated the “Apprenticeship in Practice” panel, which included stories from Eliseo Acosta from VTA/California Transit Works, labor and management representatives from TriMet, and Kyisha Bond, an apprentice from IndyGo, who gave a compelling story of joining the workforce after being incarcerated. Kyisha detailed her transit journey that started with cleaning buses, moved to becoming a coach operator, and has now arrived at her position as a bus technician through the help of IndyGo’s apprenticeship program. In addition, Kevin Kinoshita from ATU Local 757 and Jeremy Rehfeldt from TriMet spoke about the wide-reaching impact of their good labor-management relationship and how that relationship revived their apprenticeship program, allowing it to thrive and continuously improve.  

 

ATTAIN is a peer network operated by the Transit Workforce Center (TWC). Its purpose is to assist transit agencies and labor unions in exploring new apprenticeship programs or enhancing existing programs for their frontline workforce. The next ATTAIN bus operator apprenticeship meeting is scheduled for May 2 at 1:30 pm ET. For more information about TWC’s ATTAIN network and scheduled meetings click here. 

TWC contractor Maurice Beard (left) and apprentice Kyisha Bond (right) from IndyGo during the panel session of TWC's ATTAIN meeting