The Federal Transportation Administration recently awarded the Minnesota Department of Transportation $17.9 million in grant funding to help rural Minnesota transit providers upgrade their vehicle fleets and infrastructure.
MnDOT manages the federal funding of rural Minnesota transit programs and works with local partners. The money will help replace aging vehicles and transition fleets into cleaner propane technology.
“These funds improve a critical lifeline for people living in rural Minnesota, because when we invest in modern transit facilities, it supports long-term service reliability,” said Sarah Ghandour, MnDOT’s Office of Transit and Active Transportation Director. “We selected these projects based on demonstrated local need, readiness to proceed, and strong alignment with the competitive grant program criteria.”
Nearly $13.5 million in funding comes from the FTA’s Buses and Bus Facilities Program:
- $7.4 million will contribute to the cost of 40 replacement buses. MnDOT will prioritize and rank potential recipients based on vehicle ages, miles, and lifetime maintenance costs.
- $6.1 million will fund two new transit facilities for United Community Action Partnership’s Community Transit Program. The facilities, located in the city of Slayton and the city of Pipestone, will feature bus storage, maintenance/wash bays and administrative offices.
MnDOT also received $4.4 million in “Low and No Emissions Program” grant funding for:
- Tri-Valley Opportunity Council (Clearwater, Kittson, Mahnomen, Marshall, Norman, Pennington, Polk, Red Lake counties)
- Four propane buses
- Fueling Infrastructure
- Brown County Heartland Express
- Two propane buses
- Fueling infrastructure
- Rolling Hills Transit (Dodge, Olmsted, Winona, Fillmore, Houston counties)
- One propane bus
- Fueling infrastructure
- Wadena County – Friendly Rider Transit
- One propane bus
- Hubbard County Transit
- Six propane buses
- Fueling infrastructure
- Tri-County Action Partnership (Benton, Mille Lacs, Morrison, Sherburne, Stearns counties)
- Five propane buses
- Fueling infrastructure
