ATLANTA – Public transit systems across Georgia will receive $522.2 million from the federal economic stimulus package Congress passed late last month, Gov. Brian Kemp announced Monday.
The money is being made available by the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) out of the $150 billion in the stimulus package dedicated to helping state and local governments offset financial losses from the coronavirus pandemic.
“This funding will make a profound impact on our economy in our fight against COVID-19,” Kemp said.
Most of the funding – $370.9 million – is earmarked for transit agencies in metro Atlanta, including $298.6 million headed for MARTA.
“The [stimulus] funding is critical to keeping the Atlanta region’s transit network moving,” said Chris Tomlinson, executive director of The ATL, the Atlanta area’s regional transit planning and governance agency. “These funds come at a much needed time and will help support those transit employees who continue to serve this region on the front lines of the COVID-19 response.”
The rest of the money is being split between transit systems in Georgia’s other larger cities, smaller urban transit systems and rural transit agencies.
Transit systems in the larger cities – including Augusta, Columbus and Savannah – will receive $26.6 million, while smaller urban systems will get $49.7 million. The rural systems will receive $75 million.
The FTA’s priorities for the stimulus funding will be supporting operating costs transit agencies are absorbing from the impacts of COVID-19, including maintaining service during a period of low ridership, purchasing the personal protective equipment employees need to prevent the spread of the virus and covering administrative leave granted to operations personnel.
The small urban and rural transit system operators will be working with the Georgia Department of Transportation to obtain their share of the money. Those funds will be enough to support the full cost of their operations retroactive to Jan. 20 and running through June 30 of next year.
Here is a breakdown of the federal funding headed to transit systems in metro Atlanta:
Agency Allocation
MARTA $298.7 million
Xpress commuter bus system $25.7 million
Gwinnett County Transit $19.8 million
Cobb Community Transit` $18.0 million
CATS (Cherokee County) $2.78 million
Henry County Transit $2.76 million
Connect Douglas $2.5 million
Atlanta Regional Commission $510,264
CPACS bus system (Clarkston) $145,918
TOTAL $370.9 million