FTA Announces Tribal Transit Program Grants

“The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) has awarded $9.9 million in grants to 22 American Indian Tribes and Alaska Native communities to improve their public transit systems,” according to an article in Mass Transit Magazine. “Providing public transportation truly changes lives and launching transit service, replacing buses and vans, and building new transit facilities helps keep people in tribal communities and Alaska Native Villages moving.”

The article explains that tribal transit systems travel over 13 million vehicle miles every year, “providing critical access to communities that often have few other travel options.”

The article provides several examples of awarded grants, including $1.4 million for maintaining transit corridors in the Native Village of Unalakleet in Alaska, $324,000 for a new transit service for California’s Karuk Tribe, and $540,000 to fund the purchase of transit vans by the Menominee Indian Tribe.