FTA Announces Availability of $9.9 billion in FY 2024 Funding

transit.dot.gov

FTA today announced that $9.9 billion in federal funding, part of the largest investment in public transit in U.S. history, is available to support public transportation in communities throughout the country. This is the latest round of funding made possible thanks to the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. The partial-year Fiscal Year (FY) 2024 funding is detailed in apportionment tables that specify funding to states, urbanized areas, and Tribal governments based on statutory formulas.

The announcement reflects funding available for five months (October 1, 2023, to March 1, 2024) at FY 2023 levels while the federal government operates under a Continuing Resolution. The publishing of apportionment tables allows transit providers nationwide to move forward with applications for FY24 funds to support expanding and modernizing transit systems and operations.

This year, due to changes resulting from the 2020 Census, some areas will see changes to funding amounts due to new urbanized area boundaries, as well as changes in populations. The apportionments reflect changes occurring in areas that exceed or fall below the 50,000 population threshold for urban areas as well as other thresholds within the urban programs that determine whether funds are apportioned to the states or directly to urbanized areas.

Full-year formula funding will be available once Congress passes an FY24 appropriations bill. Once enacted, transit funding will be available at the levels proscribed by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to support transit in urban communities across the country and rural transit systems nationwide, allowing hundreds of transit agencies to buy new buses and railcars, improving reliability and transit service.

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Richardson Council Approves Portion of Funding for $9.7M Central Trail Extension

communityimpact.com

Richardson officials have agreed to chip in funding for a project to extend Central Trail along the Dallas border.

At a Feb. 26 council meeting, members approved up to $475,000 in funding for the project, which will extend the trail by 1.4 miles and includes updating sidewalks and crosswalks.

The nearly $9.7 million project will include:

• Off-street path improvements from the existing Central Trail at Buckingham Road to the existing sidewalks west of the Dallas College Richland Campus in order to create better connectivity with Dallas’ Cottonwood Creek Trail
• An enhanced Dallas Area Rapid Transit rail crossing for pedestrians and cyclists on Buckingham Road
• A 12-foot trail with a concrete buffer and drainage improvements along Greenville Avenue
• Americans with Disabilities Act improvements at the intersection of Greenville Avenue and Buckingham Road
• A 12-foot trail with a concrete buffer tying into an existing sidewalk near Abrams Road

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Clean Energy Turns DFW Area into a Renewable Natural Gas Hub

finance.yahoo.com

Clean Energy Fuels Corp. (Nasdaq: CLNE) announced the opening of two new fueling stations that offer heavy-duty truck and other fleet vehicles renewable natural gas (RNG), one of the only fuels that receives a carbon-negative rating. A station in North Fort Worth, near Alliance and DFW airports, and another in South Dallas close to I-45, I-35 and I-20, are strategically located near dozens of distribution centers and allow trucks to take advantage of a fuel that provides similar convenience as diesel yet is rated as one of the cleanest in the world.

The two stations expand Clean Energy’s fueling network of over 600 stations, and open at a time when RNG is becoming a fuel that many fleets are embracing to meet their carbon emissions reduction goals. A new 15-liter natural gas engine for heavy-duty trucks, the Cummins’ X15N, is anticipated to be commercially available later in 2024 and is currently being tested by some of the largest and most demanding fleets in the country, including Walmart, Werner, Knight Swift, FedEx Freight and UPS. The early reaction to the X15N has been positive at a time when the heavy-duty truck market continues to struggle to find affordable and reliable alternatives to decarbonize their fleets.

In addition to heavy-duty truck fleets, there are seven hundred Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) buses, hundreds of sanitation trucks, airport shuttles and other vehicles that support DFW and Austin-Bergstrom airports, all of which operate on ultra-clean RNG.

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