This is a widely held view in public transit, if not so much in Washington. “At the national level, we need general revenue targeted for transit operating subsidies,” said Kate Lowe, an associate professor of urban policy and planning at the University of Illinois Chicago. In 2018, VIA Metropolitan Transit poured more than $14 million into providing more frequent service on 18 selected routes and saw ridership on those routes jump more than 20 percent in a year. Swiftly, a San Francisco-based transit technology company, surveyed 123 transit professionals in late 2021, finding that 73 percent of respondents identified service reliability as the most important challenge in restoring pre-COVID ridership levels.Įvidence from San Antonio suggests they’re right. In the near term, agencies rightly appear focused on recruiting new drivers and establishing frequent, reliable service. The New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority, for example, expects to see subway ridership as much as 20 percent below pre-COVID levels through 2024.įor IIJA to revive and sustain public transit, local governments and transit agencies need to make an effective push to recover lost revenue, then act on a bold vision of post-COVID-19 cities.įirst, they need to get riders back. Ridership levels remain well below pre-COVID-19 levels without a full recovery projected in the near future, raising questions about whether investing money in transit is throwing good money after bad. These choices could not have come at a worse time. And even if the federal government did pick up 100 percent of capital spending, new transit services would require more drivers, more vehicle maintenance and a host of additional operating expenses. It is not designed to fund the entirety of a new bus rapid transit service, an expansion of a train line or purchases of new vehicles. This boost of the Capital Investment Grants program, however, can only aid local agencies in completing a capital program. All told, the program has been enlarged by 91 percent from Fiscal Year 2021 funding levels. The IIJA layers on $1.6 billion in additional Capital Investment Grant dollars this fiscal year. As a baseline, Congress provided $2.2 billion for the program in its omnibus spending package that passed in March. Take the Capital Investment Grants program, which the Federal Transit Administration has long used to fund capital projects. Unlike the COVID-19 relief bills, which included funding to support operational expenses, much of the IIJA’s public transit funds must be spent on capital projects. Mandates on how IIJA dollars can be spent only increase pressure placed on local governments and transit agencies. Difficult choices will need to be made now - think new tax increment financing districts, congestion pricing or repurposing of existing public funds - or IIJA grant dollars will be left on the table. The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), a sprawling $1.2 trillion spending bill that includes nearly $40 billion in additional money for local public transit, is about to force transit agencies and local governments to find new revenues to match the beefed-up federal grant dollars.
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