EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) — El Paso’s Sun Metro bus system will be getting more than $30 million in federal funding to replace aging buses and fight air pollution in the El Paso region, the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) announced on Tuesday, July 9.
The City of El Paso’s Mass Transit Department will receive $30,597,000 in funding.
Tuesday, the U.S. Department of Transportation’s FTA announced funding for about $1.5 billion to support 117 projects to improve public transportation in 47 states.
“Sun Metro will receive funding to buy new compressed natural gas buses to replace older buses that have exceeded their useful life and to construct new bus canopies. This project will allow Sun Metro to offer a more reliable service and reduce harmful emissions while improving environmental justice for underserved communities in the City of El Paso,” according to the news release and list of projects released by the FTA on Tuesday.
The FTA has awarded nearly $5 billion in the past three years to “replace and modernize transit buses on America’s roadways, building new technology with American workers. U.S. factories will produce more than 4,600 of these new buses,” according to the announcement.
The New Mexico Department of Transportation will receive $9.8 million in funding, and the South Central Regional Transit District, which serves Doña Ana County and has routes tying into El Paso, will get part of that.
According to the announcement, SCRTD will use its portion of the funding to buy a new hybrid-electric bus and will build a new transit facility in Las Cruces to support the expansion of its service.
“Today, another 117 communities across 47 states are receiving the good news that their transit buses are being modernized and their commutes improved through President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg in a news release. “The Biden-Harris Administration is helping agencies replace old buses running on dirtier, expensive fuels by delivering modern and zero-emission buses, manufactured by American workers, that will connect more people to where they need to go.”
The funding continues the Biden-Harris Administration’s “historic federal investments” in the nation’s bus systems and the transit workforce, according to the announcement.
“About 80 percent of the buses being funded will run on zero or low emission technology, reducing air pollution and helping meet the president’s goal of zero emissions by 2050. These programs also advance President Biden’s Justice40 Initiative, which sets the goal that 40 percent of the overall benefits of certain federal investments in climate, clean energy, clean transportation, and other areas flow to disadvantaged communities that are marginalized by underinvestment and overburdened by pollution,” according to the news release.
U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar, D-Texas, said: “Emissions from older diesel busses contribute to the transportation sector’s disproportionate role in climate change and increase the risk of respiratory illnesses among passengers. Through the historic Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the federal government is investing $30 million in our community, a critical addition to the millions already allocated to El Paso since it passed in 2021. I was proud to champion legislation that touches the lives of so many El Pasoans to provide cleaner, more reliable, and more economically sound public transportation.”
This funding is in addition to the $750,000 secured by Escobar for Sun Metro in FY24, according to the congresswoman’s office.
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