Yesterday USDOT Secretary Ray LaHood announced the awarding of $776 million to transit agencies looking to repair and modernize buses, bus facilities and equipment. Funding from the Federal Transit Administration’s new State of Good Repair grant program will go to 152 projects out of a total of 400 project applications received representing $4.2 billion in funding requests from transit providers across the country.

The grant program was created as a result of an FTA study earlier this summer which showed that more than 40% of the nation’s buses are in poor condition and that bringing the country’s bus and rail systems into a “state of good repair” would cost $78 billion. In other words, this round of awards will bring transit agencies just one percent closer to a state of good repair.

Transportation agencies in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut were among the award winners (for a complete list click here).  Bus rehabilitation and repair projects in our region include:

• $3.2 million for the Capital District Transportation Authority (Albany, NY) to replace deteriorating roofs and install energy-saving solar panels at its bus, office and paint shop buildings.
• $25 million for the MTA to replace radio equipment dating to the mid-1980s and other communications upgrades to the command center built in 1968.
• $22 million for NJ Transit to replace old buses with new, more energy-efficient and lower-emission buses.
• $1.67 million for the Greater Bridgeport Transit Authority (CT) to repair and upgrade its bus storage building.

Reading the awards reveals the nuts-and-bolts costs of operating transit systems, which often go unnoticed by transit riders but are critical to ensuring a safe and comfortable ride. Unfortunately, these awards are a rare bit of good news. The MTA’s capital program is still more hole than plan, NJ Transit’s maintenance work relies on the nearly bankrupt state Transportation Trust Fund, and Connecticut’s Special Transportation Fund is also facing deficits (although CT is finally replacing Metro-North rail cars that date from the 1970s). Significantly greater federal investment in transit is unlikely until Congress authorizes a fully funded transportation bill. Transit agencies and riders will keep getting by one day at a time.