UBRI worked with the Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority (NFTA) and the Greater Buffalo Niagara Regional Transportation Council (GBNRTC) to convene a Western New York delegation comprised of local leaders from the private, non-profit, and public sectors to attend the 2020 Rail~Volution Conference, held virtually in October 2020 due to COVID-19. Meetings with the delegation prior to the conference, designed and facilitated by UBRI, identified a common vision for the future of transportation in the region, regional transit-related challenges, potential short-term action steps, and knowledge gaps that need to be filled to help carry out those actions.

After the two-day conference, UBRI regrouped the delegation for members to share insights they learned and collaboratively strategize short-term actions they and their organizations can carry out. Informed by those insights, delegates also formulated solutions to challenges identified before the conference.  This conversation also set the stage for UBRI to complete a brief report synthesizing the findings from the three delegation meetings and insights from the conference, culminating in an one-year action plan aimed at enhancing the livability of WNY’s communities through transportation.