From El Paso to Minneapolis, local rail and bus projects are waiting on federal money that should have arrived by now.
Remember the $1 trillion federal infrastructure bill? Heavily touted by President Donald Trump on the campaign trail and in his first year of office as a plan to “build gleaming new roads, bridges, highways, railways, and waterways all across our land,” the idea is all but dead in Congress 18 months into his administration.
Like a nasty pothole, Trump’s unkept promises on road-and-rail dollars have given transportation fans a mild case of whiplash. But there may be worse harm in another infrastructure lapse on the part of this administration, this one more basic: $1.4 billion promised to transit projects across the U.S., still unallocated by the Federal Transit Administration for no clear reason.
From New York to Los Angeles, El Paso to Minneapolis, 17 rail and rapid bus projects are awaiting grants promised by the federal appropriations bill signed into law by Trump in March 2018. But the funds have still not been delivered nearly five months later. Make that 144 days, 20 hours, and 15 minutes later, as of this writing, according to a splashy countdown clock built by Transportation For America, a progressive transportation policy organization.
Here’s the full list of projects counting down the minutes, from TFA:
- Albuquerque, NM Central Avenue BRT
- Dallas, TX DART Red & Blue Line Platform Extensions
- El Paso, TX BRT Extension
- Jacksonville, FL Southwest BRT
- Los Angeles, CA Purple Line Extension (LRT), Section 3
- Minneapolis, MN Blue Line (LRT) Extension
- Minneapolis, MN Green Line (LRT) Extension
- Minneapolis, MN Orange Line BRT
- New York City, NY Canarsie (L) Line Improvements
- Orange County, CA Streetcar
- Reno, NV Virginia Street BRT
- Sacramento, CA Riverfront Streetcar
- Seattle, WA Lynnwood LRT extension
- Seattle, WA Madison Street BRT
- South Shore (IN/IL) Commuter Rail Double Tracking
- St. Petersburg, FL Central Avenue BRT
- Tempe, AZ StreetcarContinue reading.
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LAURA BLISS AUG 15, 2018