The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) recently awarded $102.3 million in Public Transportation Emergency Relief Program funds to 17 transit agencies, cities, and planning councils in eight states and territories.
The program provides assistance to public transit operators after a declared emergency or major disaster to cover the costs of evacuation, rescue operations, and temporary public transportation service; re-establish, expand, or relocate service; and pay for repair and replacement of equipment and facilities that suffered serious damage as a result of an emergency.
“Americans cannot stop their lives because a disaster damages their transit systems,” FTA Administrator Nuria Fernandez said. “We know it is critical to fund recovery efforts for these systems, so they can keep taking Americans to work, to school, to doctors’ appointments, and for all the other important journeys that transit provides.”
The funding is for floods, hurricanes, and tornadoes that occurred in 2017 and 2020-22.
Awardees included Puerto Rico, which received nearly $31 million to repair damage caused by earthquakes and Hurricane Maria. The Bi-State Development Agency of the Missouri-Illinois Metropolitan District received nearly $27.7 million for flooding in St. Louis. The New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority received $25 million to rehabilitate a substation.
The FTA will accept applications from affected transit agencies and communities for another 90 days.