Obama Administration Sends $100M in Stimulus Aid to 43 Transit Agencies

Article I found about stimulus funds, Note Eugene to invest in Hybrid Technology, while TriMet continues to fight making diesel buses efficient. The link to the whole article which includes what other states are doing with the money is at the end.

The U.S. DOT announced today that 43 local transit agencies from more than two dozen states would share the $100 million in competitive clean-transport grants included in this winter's $787 billion economic stimulus law.

Atlanta's transit system, pictured above, won $10.8 million in stimulus aid. (Photo: Atlanta MetBlogs)

The big winners in the bid for extra transit stimulus money were Atlanta, Los Angeles, San Antonio, Oakland, and the state of Connecticut, all of which won more than $4 million in federal aid to modernize and upgrade their transit systems.

Atlanta's metro transit authority will use its $10.8 million grant to erect the state's largest solar-panel installation, while Los Angeles won $4.5 million for a plan to store and re-utilize the energy produced by braking subway trains.

Today's show of federal support for transit may be just a prelude, however; Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood is currently evaluating a flood of bids for the stimulus law's $1.5 billion in competitive TIGER grants, which are open to all modes of transportation. Winners of money from the TIGER program -- its full name is Transportation Investments Generating Economic Recovery -- could be announced as soon as this fall.

After the jump, check out the full list of the transit agencies that won federal grants, along with their proposed projects, as released today by the U.S. DOT.

Oregon: Lane Transit District (Eugene), $3,000,000. Hybrid Transit Buses Incremental Costs: For the incremental cost of hybrid-electric propulsion on 40-foot replacement buses. The buses to be replaced are diesel propulsion and have been in service since 1994.

Oregon: Tri-County Metropolitan Transportation District of Oregon (Portland), $750,000. Diesel Bus Efficiency Improvements with Bus Cooling System Retrofits: Replace the existing hydraulically-powered engine cooling system with a more efficient electrically powered system. This technology has been shown at TriMet to improve fuel mileage by over 5 percent.

Entire Article here.