| Washington, D.C.- Congressman Dale E. Kildee announced today that the Flint Mass Transit Authority would receive over $1 million for long-term improvements to the transit system. Kildee had originally requested these funds from the Appropriation Subcommittee on Transportation in order to meet the demands of regional expansion and increased transit options in the Ninth District. Last year, Kildee’s funding requests were included in the federal Transportation Appropriations legislation for fiscal year 2002, which was approved by Congress and signed into law. Today, the U.S. Department of Transportation has authorized the release of $1,039,530.00 of the $3 Million Kildee earmark to the Flint Mass Transportation Authority.
“I am pleased that part of those funds that I helped secure last year are going to be released to help finance immediate improvements in the Flint transit system,” said Kildee. “High quality public transit is vital to our economy, and especially to those citizens, such as low-income workers and senior citizens, who do not have ready access to automobiles. By providing more efficient and reliable services, the public’s faith and use of Flint MTA services will continue to grow.”
The $3 million earmark from last year will help the Flint MTA fund three different mass transit programs. The Flint Mass Transit Authority will use $1,039,530 of the new federal funds towards the purchase of 5 twenty-foot replacement buses for transportation of persons with disabilities and 10 fifteen-passenger vans for curb-to-curb service. The remainder of the earmark will be released shortly to help expand the popular reverse commute program and to develop an automatic vehicle locator system. |
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