Public Transit Program, Funding, and Federal Elements

With looming fiscal difficulties but growing demand on the transportation system, there may be significant debate about the overall funding level, the structure of the current transit program, its priorities, and the resulting distribution of federal support geographically and by transit mode. Possible alternatives for restructuring federal public transit programs include focusing more resources on major capital expenses for rehabilitation and expansion of transit services; supporting and rehabilitating existing services rather than major capital expansion and the elimination of capital improvement programs altogether to be replaced by a simple "block grant" that could be distributed based on transit ridership or population. This book provides background on the characteristics of the transit sector and ridership trends and current structure of the federal transit program.