FTA Awards $388M for Bus Facility Grants

Detected March 17th, 2026

Summary

The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) has announced the award of $388,279,883 for 34 projects under the FY 2026 Grants for Buses and Bus Facilities Competitive Program. This notice provides administrative guidance for successful applicants on project implementation and fund utilization.

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What changed

The U.S. Department of Transportation's Federal Transit Administration (FTA) has announced the selection of 34 projects to receive $388,279,883 in funding through the FY 2026 Grants for Buses and Bus Facilities Competitive Program. This funding, authorized by federal law, will assist states and eligible public agencies in replacing, rehabilitating, purchasing, or leasing buses, vans, and related equipment, as well as for capital projects for bus-related facilities. The selection process evaluated 479 project proposals against criteria outlined in a prior Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO).

Successful applicants are required to work with their FTA Regional Office to submit a grant application in the Transit Award Management System (TrAMS) to obligate the funds. Applicants must use the assigned project identification number and ensure grant applications include only eligible activities from their original proposal. If the allocated amount is less than requested, recipients must reduce the project scope or scale to implement a complete phase or usable segment, coordinating with their Regional Office. Recipients may also supplement with local funds to complete projects. Further administrative guidance is provided for project implementation.

What to do next

Contact appropriate FTA Regional Office for application and program-specific information.
Submit grant application in FTA's Transit Award Management System (TrAMS) using the assigned project identification number.
Coordinate with FTA Regional Office to reduce project scope if allocated funds are less than requested.

Source document (simplified)

Content

ACTION:

Notice of project selections and implementation guidance.

SUMMARY:

The U.S. Department of Transportation's (DOT) Federal Transit Administration (FTA) announces the award of $388,279,883 for
34 projects under the FY 2026 Grants for Buses and Bus Facilities Competitive Program (Bus Competitive Program). This notice
provides administrative guidance on project implementation.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Successful applicants should contact the appropriate FTA Regional Office for information regarding applying for the funds
or program-specific information. A list of Regional Offices can be found at https://www.transit.dot.gov/about/regional-offices/regional-offices. For all other questions, contact Kirsten Wiard-Bauer, Office of Program Management, at ftalownobusnofo@dot.gov or (202) 366-2053. A TDD is available at 1-800-877-8339 (TDD/FIRS).

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Federal public transportation law (49 U.S.C. 5339(b)) authorizes FTA to make competitive grants for the Bus Competitive Program.

Federal public transportation law (49 U.S.C. 5338(a)(2)(M)) authorized $408,223,797 in FY 2026 funds for the Bus Competitive
Program after an oversight takedown.

On May 15, 2025, FTA published a joint Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) announcing the availability of approximately $398
million in FY 2025 Bus Competitive Program funds and approximately $1.10 billion in Low or No Emission (Low-No) Program funds
(90 FR 20737). FTA is electing to select additional projects from this NOFO using FY 2026 Bus Competitive Program funds, as
well as available prior year funds. These funds will provide financial assistance to states and eligible public agencies to
replace, rehabilitate, purchase, or lease buses, vans, and related equipment; and for capital projects to rehabilitate, purchase,
construct, or lease bus-related facilities. In response to the NOFO, FTA received 479 eligible project proposals requesting
approximately $6.8 billion in Federal funds. Project proposals were evaluated based on each applicant's

  responsiveness to the program evaluation criteria outlined in the NOFO.

Based on the criteria in the NOFO, FTA is funding 34 projects, as shown in Table 1, for a total of $388,279,883. A minimum
of 15 percent of the amount made available for the Bus Competitive Program is set aside for projects located in rural areas,
which is reflected in FTA's joint selections across FY 2025 and FY 2026. A statutory cap of 10 percent for any one applicant
in the Bus Competitive Program is reflected as well.

Recipients selected for competitive funding are required to work with their FTA Regional Office to submit a grant application
in FTA's Transit Award Management System (TrAMS) for the projects identified in the attached table to quickly obligate funds.
A discretionary project identification number has been assigned to each project for tracking purposes and must be used in
the TrAMS application. Grant applications must include only eligible activities applied for in the original project proposal.

When the allocated amount is less than the requested amount, recipients must reduce scope or scale the project so that a complete
phase or a usable segment of the originally proposed project is implemented. Amounts may be reduced because they were capped
or scaled due to more funding being requested than available, ineligible expenses may have been removed from the funded project
scope, or funding was allocated for only the low-emission elements of a mixed-emission project. In all such cases where the
amount allocated is less than the amount requested, the recipient should work with its Regional Office to reduce the scope
appropriately. Recipients may also provide additional local funds to complete a proposed project.

Selected projects are eligible to incur costs under pre-award authority no earlier than Friday, February 20, 2026. Pre-award
costs are incurred at your own risk, and the announcement that a project was selected does not guarantee that FTA will, in
fact, obligate a grant for the funding. FTA is not required to reimburse pre-award costs if you do not receive an obligated
grant or if the obligated grant is less than anticipated and is inadequate to cover all pre-award costs. Eligibility for reimbursement
is contingent upon planning and environmental requirements having been met, among other factors. For more about FTA's policy
on pre-award authority, please see the current FTA Apportionments, Allocations, and Program Information at https://www.transit.dot.gov/funding/apportionments.

Post-award reporting requirements include submission of Federal Financial Reports and Milestone Progress Reports in TrAMS
(see FTA Circular 5010.1F). Recipients must comply with all applicable Federal statutes, regulations, executive orders, FTA
circulars, and other Federal requirements in carrying out the project supported by the FTA grant. FTA emphasizes that recipients
must follow all third-party procurement requirements set forth in Federal public transportation law (49 U.S.C. 5325(a)) and
described in the FTA Third Party Contracting Guidance Circular (FTA Circular 4220.1G).

Funds allocated in this announcement must be obligated in a grant by September 30, 2029.

Technical Review and Evaluation Summary: The FTA assessed all project proposals that were submitted under the FY 2025 Buses and Bus Facilities Program and the Low-No
Program competition. For information on the evaluation criteria, please refer to
Federal Register
Notice (91 FR 1856): https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2026/01/15/2026-00643/announcement-of-fiscal-year-2025-grants-for-buses-and-bus-facilities-program-and-fiscal-year-2025.

Matthew J. Welbes, Executive Director.
| State | Recipient | Project ID | Project description | Award |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| AK | Manokotak Village | D2026-BUSC-100 | Purchase expansion bus | $205,000 |
| AK | University of Alaska Fairbanks | D2026-BUSC-101 | Expand and rehabilitate maintenance facility | 5,440,000 |
| CA | Antelope Valley Transit Authority | D2026-BUSC-102 | Construct operations and maintenance facility | 16,640,000 |
| CA | City of Santa Ana | D2026-BUSC-103 | Rehabilitate and replace bus infrastructure | 3,472,000 |
| CA | Foothill Transit | D2026-BUSC-104 | Construct a mobility hub | 20,800,000 |
| CA | Golden Gate Bridge, Highway & Transportation District | D2026-BUSC-105 | Relocate bus transit center | 25,600,000 |
| CA | Orange County Transportation Authority | D2026-BUSC-106 | Purchase safety and security equipment for bus facilities | 960,000 |
| CA | San Diego Metropolitan Transit System (MTS) | D2026-BUSC-107 | Construct bus transit center | 14,680,000 |
| DE | Delaware Department of Transportation | D2026-BUSC-108 | Rehabilitate buses | 14,260,000 |
| FL | City of Gainesville | D2026-BUSC-109 | Purchase replacement buses, construct bus transfer station, and improve bus stops | 10,263,750 |
| FL | Florida Department of Transportation obo Central Florida Regional Transportation Authority (LYNX) | D2026-BUSC-110 | Purchase replacement buses | 9,270,640 |
| HI | Honolulu Department of Transportation Services | D2026-BUSC-111 | Purchase replacement buses and related equipment | 11,569,965 |
| IA | Des Moines Area Regional Transit Authority | D2026-BUSC-112 | Expand bus facility | 20,000,000 |
| IL | Springfield Mass Transit District | D2026-BUSC-113 | Construct bus fueling station | 6,733,300 |
| LA | New Orleans Regional Transit Authority (NORTA) | D2026-BUSC-114 | Purchase replacement buses and rehabilitate two operations and maintenance facilities | 27,200,000 |
| MD | Maryland Transit Administration obo Transit Services of Frederick County | D2026-BUSC-115 | Purchase replacement vehicles | 336,000 |
| MI | Ann Arbor Area Transportation Authority | D2026-BUSC-116 | Purchase new bus facility | 7,220,095 |
| MO | Kansas City Area Transportation Authority | D2026-BUSC-117 | Purchase replacement buses and rehabilitate bus facility | 13,333,000 |
| NC | City of Durham | D2026-BUSC-118 | Purchase replacement buses | 6,142,400 |
| NC | Research Triangle Regional Public Transportation Authority dba GoTriangle | D2026-BUSC-119 | Expand and rehabilitate operations and maintenance facility | 17,718,750 |
| NC | Town of Chapel Hill | D2026-BUSC-120 | Purchase replacement vehicles and safety training equipment | 8,802,268 |
| ND | North Dakota Department of Transportation | D2026-BUSC-121 | Purchase replacement buses | 5,070,000 |
| NV | Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada | D2026-BUSC-122 | Purchase replacement buses and related equipment | 8,843,449 |
| NY | Central New York Regional Transportation Authority (CNYRTA) | D2026-BUSC-123 | Construct bus maintenance, storage, and administrative facility | 28,800,000 |
| NY | New York City Department of Transportation | D2026-BUSC-124 | Construct and rehabilitate bus stops | 10,000,000 |
| NY | Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority | D2026-BUSC-125 | Rehabilitate three bus facilities | 21,600,000 |
| OR | Salem Area Mass Transit District | D2026-BUSC-126 | Construct bus transit center | 3,000,000 |
| PR | Puerto Rico Highways and Transportation Authority obo Municipality of Aguada | D2026-BUSC-127 | Purchase expansion buses and rehabilitate bus terminal | 2,477,341 |
| PR | Puerto Rico Highways and Transportation Authority obo Municipality of San German | D2026-BUSC-128 | Purchase expansion buses and construct bus stops | 1,182,550 |
| TN | City of Clarksville | D2026-BUSC-129 and D2026-BUSC-130 | Construct bus transit center | 16,000,000 |
| VA | Petersburg Area Transit | D2026-BUSC-131 | Purchase replacement buses and construct operations and maintenance facility | 23,820,750 |
| VA | Transportation District Commission of Hampton Roads | D2026-BUSC-132 | Purchase replacement buses | 10,620,000 |
| WA | Kitsap County Public Transportation Benefit Area Authority (DBA Kitsap Transit) | D2026-BUSC-133 | Construct bus driver training facility | 15,000,000 |
| WA | Sauk-Suiattle Indian Tribe | D2026-BUSC-134 | Purchase replacement buses and construct bus facility | 1,218,625 |
| | Total | | | 388,279,883 |
[FR Doc. 2026-05152 Filed 3-16-26; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 4910-57-P