The Texas Department of Transportation will allocate $35 million from the Unified Transportation Program (UTP) to help VIA Metropolitan Transit pay for added bus passenger amenities, including transit centers, bus shelters, park and rides, and the expansion of the agency’s NGV efforts. These expansion efforts include a CNG station and the procurement of additional buses that operate on natural gas.
“We are grateful to the Texas Transportation Commission for this funding,” said VIA President and CEO Jeffrey C. Arndt. “We appreciate that the Department sees that we need all the tools in the transportation toolbox to address mobility in our rapidly growing community and that we are making an unprecedented investment in public transportation. VIA has an integrated transportation plan in place that will touch all sectors of the city, and this funding from TxDOT allows us to move forward with that plan.”
The UTP funding allocation demonstrates TxDOT’s commitment to assisting VIA in providing transit investments that serve existing customers and that generate a framework for a multimodal transit system.
The Texas Transportation Commission and TxDOT use the Program UTP as TxDOT’s 10-year comprehensive plan to guide transportation project development. The UTP authorizes projects for construction, development, and planning activities and includes projects involving highways, aviation, public transportation, and state and coastal waterways.
Source: VIA Metropolitan Transit
