U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood today joined Lieutenant Governor Tim Murray, Congressman Richard Neal and MassDOT Secretary Richard A. Davey in Springfield to announce 255 federal transit grants totaling $787 million nationwide, including three grants for Springfield Union Station, Pioneer Valley Transit Authority, and the MBTA.
The Massachusetts grants include:
Springfield Union Station- $17.6 million will implement Phase I of the redevelopment of Union Station into an intermodal transportation and passenger center serving the Pioneer Valley Transit Authority and Peter Pan bus services, Amtrak, inter-city rail, and planned commuter rail to Connecticut, all in a single location with convenient pedestrian access and parking.
- MBTA Vehicle Replacements- $15.6 million will replace T buses past their useful life with new energy-efficient vehicles to improve bus service and meet rising demand.
- Pioneer Valley Transit Authority (PVTA), Springfield Operations & Maintenance Facility- $3.96 million will go towards Phase II of the PVTA plan to replace a century-old operations and maintenance facility in downtown Springfield with a new facility to more efficiently serve its current transit bus fleet.
This third round of federal funding supports projects in the Federal Transit Administration’s (FTA) FY2012 State of Good Repair and Bus Livability grant program. FTA received 836 project applications totaling $4 billion in requests. In FY2010 and FY2011, FTA awarded a total of more than $1.8 billion in grants for hundreds of state of good repair projects, primarily involving buses and bus facilities.
New MBTA busses should be a minimum of 45 feet long, not necessarily with more seats, but definitely more standee space which can accomodate wheelchairs, strollers, shopping carts and standing bass fiddles, all of which can be seen on MBTA vehicles. Be sure that the new busses are the allowable maximum width of 102 inches and run on routine diesel fuel.
Posted by: richard pendleton | August 10, 2012 at 12:56 PM
Which buses in the MBTA fleet will be replaced in this project?
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Buses will be replaced according to age and condition.
Posted by: boblothrope | July 31, 2012 at 05:49 PM