U.S. Department of Transportation Waives Local Matching Requirements and Approves $15.7 Million for Public Transportation in Louisiana

New Orleans’ trolleys and buses will continue running, as will bus service between Baton Rouge and New Orleans, thanks to nearly $16 million in new federal funds being made available to the city’s transit agency, U.S. Secretary of Transportation Mary Peters announced today.

Secretary Peters said that the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Transit Administration (FTA) had approved $13.6 million to continue operation of public transportation in the city of New Orleans.  Because of an emergency federal provision, the New Orleans Regional Transit Authority (NORTA) will be able to receive the money without having to put up a local match, and will be free of federal regulations that prohibit spending capital funds on operating expenses.

“This investment is as much about bringing energy and vitality back to the streets of New Orleans as it is about keeping bus and trolley service running,” said Secretary Peters. "Nobody should be left without a way to get to work because of a set of rules that don’t take into account all this incredible city has been through."

The Secretary added that the Department is also making $2.1 million in federal funding available to the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development (LADOTD) for the continuation of the LA SWIFT program, which provides bus service from Baton Rouge to New Orleans for former residents of New Orleans who were displaced last year.  The federal funding will allow the LA SWIFT to continue operation while the State of Louisiana explores permanent funding options for the program.

The Secretary noted that, to date, the Department has deferred the local match for the remaining funds in all of NORTA’s active grants, approved budget revisions to fund planning studies, and awarded grants for the ongoing work on the St. Charles re-electrification project and the New Orleans Union Passenger Terminal.

In June of 2006, the Department granted NORTA an administrative waiver that allowed the use of pre-hurricane population data to calculate the amount of federal transit funding for which the New Orleans area is eligible in 2007.

As a result of the waiver, the New Orleans area will receive no less than the $15.5 million in federal transit 2006 funding that was apportioned by formula.  Had the waiver not been granted, the area's apportionment could have been cut nearly in half.