Overview:
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The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) funds mass transit systems across the country by distributing billions of dollars in grants to local and state governments and other organizations. FTA’s goal is see new transit systems come online or to improve existing mass transit operations. The agency is also responsible for ensuring that recipients of grants follow federal mandates along with statutory and administrative requirements. Due to the sheer cost of building new public transportation systems, FTA funding is critical to any project hoping to get off the ground. In one instance, the agency flip-flopped over supporting a longtime subway project affecting Washington, DC, and Northern Virginia, which angered both proponents and critics of the project.
History:
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During the 1950s, the federal government’s transportation policy focused on building a network of coast-to-coast highways which became known as the Interstate Highway System. While this expansion of American roadways was important for the economic growth of the US, it left little room for other types of transportation projects, including those for mass transit. To make matters worse, federal lawmakers adopted legislation in 1958 making it easier for railroads to discontinue service to certain areas. This immediately resulted in the closing down of several important commuter rail services.
The one good thing that came out of the 1958 legislation was that it galvanized supporters of mass transit to redouble their efforts to encourage federal assistance in this area. In 1960, a bill was introduced in the Senate that would have provided federal assistance for mass transportation. The bill failed to clear the House, but supporters tried again in 1961. By then, John F. Kennedy had become President. Kennedy was in favor of bolstering mass transit systems.
The proposal to establish federal assistance for mass transportation was included in the Omnibus Housing Act of 1961 which cleared both the House and the Senate and was signed into law by Kennedy. The act provided $50 million for federal loans and $25 million in grants to support demonstration pilot projects in mass transportation.
This funding represented just the beginning of a larger effort to establish a permanent federal program supporting mass transit in 1962. Although Kennedy introduced the follow up legislation, the bill wasn’t passed until after his death. Kennedy’s successor, Lyndon B. Johnson, signed the Urban Mass Transportation Act into law in July 1964. In addition to providing $375 million in capital assistance over three years, the act led to the establishment of the Urban Mass Transportation Administration, which was mandated to provide federal assistance for mass transit projects. In 1991, the agency was renamed the Federal Transit Administration.
Urban Transportation Planning In the United States: An Historical Overview
What it Does:
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FTA helps communities support public transportation by issuing grants to eligible recipients for planning, vehicle purchases, facility construction, operations and other purposes. FTA administers this financial assistance according to the 2005 Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act, or SAFETEA-LU.
SAFETEA-LU authorizes specific dollar amounts for each program. Congress provides an annual appropriation that funds the programs specified in SAFETEA-LU. Upon receiving this appropriation, FTA apportions and allocates these funds according to formulas and earmarks. These FTA apportionments are published annually in the Federal Register.
FTA supports transportation planning in a number of ways. The agency administers metropolitan planning (49 USC §5303) and statewide planning (49 USC §5304) grant programs to help fund multimodal transportation planning efforts of metropolitan planning organizations and state departments of transportation. FTA formula funding (49 USC §5307) may also be used by grantees to support their planning needs. FTA also provides technical assistance on a broad range of planning topics including regional and statewide planning and programming; corridor planning for major capital investments; environmental project reviews under the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 and related laws; travel demand forecasting and analysis; capital costing; operations planning and costing; financial planning and analysis; land use planning; and public involvement.
In cooperation with the Federal Highway Administration, FTA provides assistance and resources on planning and environmental procedures and methods, including the joint Transportation Planning Capacity Building Program. It also supports the transportation planning certification review process, implementation of the Clean Air Act as amended in 1990 and travel demand forecasting through the Travel Model Improvement Program. FTA planning assistance is organized within the following three areas: transportation systems planning, project planning and development and environmental review of proposed projects.
Like many other segments of the federal government, FTA has made security a priority since 9/11. FTA has conducted risk and vulnerability assessments and deployed technical assistance teams to help strengthen security and emergency preparedness plans at the local and state levels. It also has funded emergency response drills conducted in conjunction with local fire, police and emergency responders. The Safety & Security division provides additional information regarding
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Where Does the Money Go:
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One of the largest outlays of FTA grants went to support rebuilding efforts at the World Trade Center complex. In 2005, FTA announced it had awarded $699 million (PDF) to the New York Port Authority to help with several projects, including a new $478 million World Trade Center Security Center.
Examples of 2008 projects that FTA has supported include:
- Norfolk, VA’s The Tide light rail project received $128 million toward building 11 stations, three new park-and-ride structures and a maintenance facility and the purchasing of nine rail vehicles. The Tide, which will cost a total of $232 million to complete and is expected to begin service in 2010, will serve between 6,000 and 12,000 riders per day.
- The Wisconsin Department of Transportation/Bureau of Transit received a grant of $2.2 million to provide operating and planning assistance to areas with a population below 50,000. The grant will be used to expand service in 11 rural areas and to study of the feasibility of bringing public transportation to four additional counties.
- The Center for Transportation and the Environment was awarded a $1.2 million grant for the continued development and demonstration of an improved hybrid fuel cell bus.
In addition to distributing billions of dollars in grants, the Federal Transit Administration has spent $532 million on contracts to private companies and public entities from 2000-2008, according to USAspending.gov. A total of 420 contractors were paid by FTA for services that included inspection services, motor passenger services, architect and engineering services, technical assistance and program management. The top 10 recipients of FTA contracts were:
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Regional Transit Authority
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$67,343,537
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Coach America
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$36,961,990
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Carter & Burgess, Inc.
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$32,155,811
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Hill International, Inc.
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$29,232,671
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Urban Engineers, Inc.
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$21,438,905
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David Evans and Associates, Inc.
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$21,250,809
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STV Group, Inc.
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$20,146,208
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Booz Allen Hamilton, Inc.
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$18,862,346
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State Of Louisiana
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$18,746,088
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The Sverdrup Corporation
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$17,533,471
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Controversies:
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For more than 40 years, Washington, DC has been trying to link its downtown to Dulles International Airport via the local subway system, known as the Metro. The final phase of this plan requires building 23 miles of rail to reach the airport - a distance that seemed like a million miles after FTA withdrew its support.
In January 2008, FTA announced it would not make available $900 million in federal grants because of “the sheer number and magnitude of the current project’s technical, financial and institutional risks and uncertainties,” said FTA Administrator James Simpson in a letter to Virginia Gov. Timothy M. Kaine (D). “I have serious concerns whether it would be appropriate to continue further investment.”
Kaine and other Virginia officials were stunned by FTA’s decision. Many local politicians, including US Senator John Warner (R-VA), bitterly complained that FTA had not previously given any indication that it would take such a drastic step and withhold crucial funding for the project. The rail extension was expected to ease congestion through Virginia’s biggest jobs corridor and also help it grow by stimulating a transformation of suburban Tysons Corner into a thriving downtown.
Three months later, FTA reversed itself and announced it would support the project after local officials agreed to cleave $200 million from the project’s budget - some of which would have gone towards improving area roads. The reversal by FTA set off more outcry by those opposed to the project, some of whom called the $5 billion project pure “pork” designed to “benefit wealthy Tysons Corner landowners and their political allies at the expense of taxpayers and commuters,” according to one editorial. Critics argued that rather than reduce traffic in Northern Virginia, the project would actually increase congestion in and around Tysons Corner.
Dulles Rail Project Back on Track (Hank Silverberg and Colleen Kelleher, WTOP Radio)
Dulles Rail Project All but Dead: With Federal Funding at Risk, Some in Va. Say Demands for Major Revisions Can't Be Met (by Amy Gardner, Washington Post)
New’ Dulles Rail is same old bad deal (Editorial, Washington DC Examiner Newspaper)
Dulles Rail Boondoggle Exposes Flaws in Federal Transportation Policy (by Wendell Cox and Ronald D. Utt, Heritage Foundation)
FTA Terrorist Report Becomes Public
As part of its efforts to improve security for mass transit systems, FTA hires outside firms to produce assessments of the vulnerability of bus and railway networks to terrorist attacks. These reports are supposed to be kept confidential, but one assessment was leaked by a Chicago television reporter after he found it on the Internet.
The report was conducted by FTA contractor Booz Allen Hamilton Inc., a national consulting firm, which analyzed the state of Chicago’s bus and rail system.
Larry Yellen, an investigative reporter with WFLD Fox News in Chicago, found the report using the leading peer-to-peer (P2P) program LimeWire.
A spokesman for Booz Allen said the report was one of 35 threat assessments conducted on behalf of FTA. The company had no idea how the Chicago report wound up floating around on the Web, and its spokesman tried to lay the blame on federal, state and private-sector entities and first responders who were given a copy, saying it was the responsibility of those entities to protect the document.
(by Jaikumar Vijayan, ComputerWorld)
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- Table of Contents
- Overview
- History
- What it Does
- Where Does the Money Go
- Controversies
- Suggested Reforms
- Comments
- Leave a Comment
Federal Transit Administration
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