April 15, 2008
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The Honorable Mary E. Peters
Secretary
U.S. Department of Transportation
1200 New Jersey Avenue, S.E.
Washington, DC 20590
Dear Secretary Peters:
On behalf of the American Public Transportation Association (APTA) and its 1,500 member organizations, I write to ask that you consider reallocating unused funds from the Urban Partnership Congestion Initiative (UPCI) under the Federal Transit Agency’s (FTA) Bus and Bus Facilities Program.
Last year, the department’s decision to use the entire amount of unallocated Bus and Bus Facilities Program funds from Fiscal Year (FY) 2007 for the UPCI eliminated funding that would have been available for important bus projects at hundreds of transit systems across the nation. Year in and year out, large and small communities rely on annual Bus and Bus Facilities grants to meet basic capital needs, such as replacing bus rolling stock and upgrading outdated facilities. The administration’s decision to divert these funds caused many transit agencies to miss out on the opportunity to obtain critical resources to advance important projects and, in some cases, delayed projects already in progress. As I wrote to you last year, APTA does not disagree with the basic principles embodied in the UPCI. However, we believe the administration should not have funded the UPCI program at the expense of the regular Bus and Bus Facilities program.
The New York State General Assembly’s recent decision to reject New York City’s congestion initiative program has provided the Department of Transportation an opportunity to at least partially rectify this situation. The state’s forfeiture of its FTA UPCI grant will make $213.6 million of the unallocated FY 2007 Bus and Bus Facilities program funds available for other uses. Rather than redistribute the funds to one or a few other communities that may not be ready to implement congestion pricing, we strongly urge you to combine the funds with unallocated Bus and Bus Facilities funds from FY 2008 and solicit grant requests for traditional bus projects. This will give transit systems that applied for grants in FY 2007 in response to FTA’s solicitation a new opportunity to address immediate unmet capital needs and stimulate the economy.
Thank you for your consideration of APTA’s views on this important matter. If you have questions or want more information, please contact Paul Dean of APTA’s Government Affairs Department at (202) 496-4887 or email pdean@apta.com.
If you have any questions about these issues, please have your staff contact Homer Carlisle of APTA's Government Affairs Department at (202) 496-4810 or email hcarlisle@apta.com. Thank you.
Sincerely,
William W. Millar
President
WWM/tjj
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