Obama Administration to Award $775M for Bus Transit Upgrades

The Obama administration plans to award $775 million in bus transit
grants this summer, Federal Transit Administration (FTA) chief Peter
Rogoff announced yesterday during a transit industry conference
in Ohio.

Federal
Transit Administrator Peter Rogoff (in hard hat) (Photo: WaPo)

The
bus grants are aimed at shoring up aging equipment and helping
cash-strapped localities modernize their systems. Instructions for
application will be released tomorrow in the Federal Register, with bids
due by next month.

"The Obama administration is making
these funds available to ensure that financially strapped transit
providers can keep buses rolling and serving the public during these
difficult economic times,” Rogoff said in a statement released by the
FTA today.

The $775 million comes from already-appropriated but unallocated
federal bus funding, meaning that no new act of Congress will be
required to release the money.