Muni Receives $21.4M in Federal Funds for New Buses, 8x Line Improvements

The SF Municipal Transportation Agency received more than $21 million in federal funds to purchase new buses and implement improvements like colored bus lanes, transit priority signals, and bus-mounted enforcement cameras, the agency announced today.

The funds come from the Federal Transit Administration’s Livability and State of Good Repair grant programs. In total, the FTA will provide $45.7 million for transit upgrades on systems throughout the Bay Area, including BART, AC Transit, SamTrans, and the Valley Transportation Authority.

Muni, which has the oldest transit fleet in the nation, will be able to replace 18 twenty-year-old buses with low-floor, biodiesel hybrid buses using the $15 million State of Good Repair grant, according to a news release. Another $6.4 million, which comes from the Livability grant, will be used for these improvements along the 8x Bayshore Express line as part of the 8x Mobility Maximization project:

• Coloring of existing dedicated transit lanes;
• Transit signal priority;
• Pre-payment fare collection;
• Information panel and transit arrival prediction signs;
• Vehicle branding and enhanced stop identification; and
• Cameras on buses to capture vehicles illegally occupying transit-only lanes.

“Investments in optimizing existing service and enhancing the customer experience will not only help us better serve our current customers, but also will help attract new customers,” said SFMTA Director of Transportation Ed Reiskin in a statement. “Underscoring San Francisco’s Transit First policy, the SFMTA will direct these funds to frontline Muni service.”

The grants are part of a nationwide package of $787 million in transit investments announced by the FTA today.