05-18-07
Contact: Paul Griffo
Telephone: (202) 366-4043
U.S. Secretary of Transportation Mary E. Peters today announced that bus projects in Kansas City, Mo., and Springfield, Ore., will be funded a year ahead of schedule through a new “Small Starts” program created to help level the playing field for transit projects in smaller communities.
The Troost Corridor Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) in Kansas City, MO, and the Pioneer Parkway Emerald Express (EmX) BRT in Springfield, OR, will receive $6.3 million and $14.8 million, respectively.
“Small Starts provides us with a smart way to battle congestion in smaller and medium-sized communities that are increasingly feeling the grind of traffic gridlock,” Secretary Peters said.
The President’s FY 2008 budget recommended funding for the Kansas City and Springfield projects. However, due to the projects’ progress and development, the Bush Administration will provide capital funding in FY 2007 – one year earlier than planned – so the projects can continue to develop and advance.
The Troost Corridor BRT project is a proposed nine-mile, $30.7 million BRT line serving 25 stations along Troost Avenue and terminating in downtown Kansas City. The new line will pick up passengers at stations every 10 minutes during peak periods. Ridership is projected to be 9,000 daily passengers.
The Pioneer Parkway Emerald EmX BRT project is a proposed 7.8-mile, $37 million extension of the Franklin Corridor BRT, which runs between Eugene and Springfield. The project will branch out from Springfield Station north along the Pioneer Parkway to existing and new residential and employment areas in the Gateway area of Springfield. The line will pick up passengers every 10 minutes at 14 new stations via hybrid-electric vehicles. The extension will serve an anticipated 3,700 daily passengers when it is scheduled to open in 2010.
Federal Transit Administrator James S. Simpson stated, “The Small Starts program meets a significant need in supporting transit projects in smaller communities. These two projects represent an important start to this outstanding new program.”
The Bush Administration and Congress created the Small Starts category to allow smaller transit projects—those with $250 million or less in construction costs and requesting less than $75 million in discretionary federal funding — to compete against like projects, as opposed to larger projects, for limited federal discretionary transit capital funding.
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