The Federal Transit Administration has awarded Rock Region Metro $1.65 million toward the purchase of four more buses that will operate on compressed natural gas.
The money from a Federal Transit Administration program represents the first competitive grant the Pulaski County transit agency has been awarded.
Rock Region already operates 15 buses that use compressed natural gas, and it has seven more on order that are scheduled to go into service next year. The money will help cover the cost of four of those seven, an agency spokesman said.
The award will help Rock Region toward its goal of replacing its diesel buses with natural gas buses, according to Jarod Varner, the agency's executive director.
"This award will greatly assist us in bringing modern transit to central Arkansas," he said in a news release.
The Federal Transit Administration, an arm of the U.S. Department of Transportation, announced Thursday that it had awarded a total of $211 million to 61 projects in 41 states, the Virgin Islands and Indian country to replace, rehabilitate, and purchase buses and related equipment, and to build bus-related facilities.
The agency received 284 applications under the grant program worth $1.64 billion.
"These grants will improve mobility for thousands of transit riders who depend on bus service every day, expanding access to employment, education, health care, and other important services in their communities," Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx said in a statement.
Former North Little Rock Mayor Pat Hays, other elected officials and members of the Rock Region board began pushing for compressed natural gas buses several years ago. They said natural gas is less expensive than diesel and is said to burn more cleanly.
The board embraced the goal in 2014 when it approved $9.3 million to acquire the first 15 buses and build a station to fuel them. The buses began operating last year. Rock Region has a fleet of 59 buses for its regular routes.
The grant provides an 85 percent funding match for two 40-foot buses at a cost of $485,033 each and two 35-foot buses worth $479,108 each, with the federal grant covering $1,639,048, or 85 percent, of the total $1,928,282 purchase price. Rock Region will provide the remaining 15 percent match.
The new buses replace seven 12-year-old, 40-foot buses, the news release said.
The grant will also go toward an $18,063 educational diagnostic center that will teach mechanics how to more efficiently identify compressed natural gas bus mechanical problems. The grant will cover $14,450 of that cost while Rock Region's portion will be $3,613, according to the news release.
Varner called the grant funding "critical to improving long-term planning and project finance for public transit infrastructure across our country," but he said his agency will continue "to pursue a dedicated funding source for central Arkansas public transit service so we may have the matching fund reserves to compete for even more federal transportation funding."
In March, Pulaski County voters rejected a proposed 0.25 percent increase in the countywide sales tax that would have been dedicated to transit.
Metro on 09/09/2016