Stimulus to pay for new C-Tran buses
Thursday, July 9 | 11:18 p.m.
BY ERIK ROBINSON
COLUMBIAN STAFF WRITER
Clark County’s transit agency on Thursday received $5.8 million through federal economic stimulus funding.
The money will enable the agency to purchase three new hybrid buses and 12 new minivans, as well as pay for assorted upgrades to communications and maintenance for its existing fleet of 110 buses and 67 C-Van paratransit vehicles. It will also ease the agency’s budget crunch, a spokesman said.
About $1.5 million will go toward preventative maintenance.
“What this allows us to do is leverage those federal dollars and help save some of the budgeted dollars that would otherwise be expended on maintenance,” C-Tran spokesman Scott Patterson said. “We are experiencing a serious downturn in revenue.”
C-Tran’s grant amounts to 0.007 percent of the $787 billion economic stimulus bill signed by President Barack Obama on Feb. 17.
The grant is one of 343 totalling $3.2 billion to improve public transit across the country. The Federal Transit Administration expects to award another $5.2 billion worth of transit grants through the end of the year, said Paul Griffo, an FTA spokesman in Washington, D.C.
“This economic crisis has put a strain on our public transportation system; this money will allow our local agencies to expand their fleets to keep up with increasing demand,” U.S. Rep. Brian Baird, D-Vancouver, said in a prepared statement. “What’s more, these new hybrid vehicles are more fuel-efficient, making them less expensive to operate and better for our environment in the long run.”
by K Gero : 7/10/09 6:14am - Report Abuse
This is all fine and dandy. Now let's not sneak any funds into the CRC project, labeling it a surprise profit from signboards on the sides of the buses again.