Iowa City Today

The City of Iowa City's Transportation Services has received a monumental $23.2 million grant to replace the City's aging transit facility and purchase four additional electric buses. 

The grant money, totaling $23,280,546, comes from the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) as part of their Low or No Emission/Busses and Facilities programs. The grant money will fund the City's Zero-Emission Transit Operations Maintenance Facility, while also doubling Iowa City's electric bus fleet.

“We are beyond excited to be awarded this game-changing grant. These funds will allow us to modernize the transit facility, expand our electric fleet, and improve access to affordable and sustainable transportation for Iowa City residents and visitors. The new facility will be purpose-built for electric or other low-emission technology and will be powered by clean, renewable energy enabling Iowa City Transit’s transformation into one of the most sustainable transit systems in the United States,” Darian Nagle-Gamm, Transportation Director said.

"There are so many people who helped us win this awesome and amazing grant. Our local representatives in Washington D.C., Senator Grassley, Senator Ernst, and Representative Miller-Meeks, lobbied hard for these funds and we are grateful for our partners at the U.S. Department of Transportation and Federal Transit Administration, including Secretary Pete Buttigieg. The widespread support from local employers, businesses, and business associations, trades and labor unions, non-profit agencies, educational institutions, and health care providers were critical to this entire process as well. Finally, we thank our passionate community members and bus riders, who will benefit directly from this milestone for years to come," Mayor Bruce Teague said. 

These funds will help replace the current Transit Facility at 1200 S. Riverside Drive, which was built in the 1980s. With the existing facility aging and in poor condition, these funds will be instrumental for constructing a modernized facility from which the City can provide safe, affordable, convenient, and sustainable transportation services to the community for many decades to come.

Transportation Services currently provides rides to over 1.1 million people a year and expects ridership to grow as the City commences a two-year Fare Free Iowa City pilot later this summer.

Original source can be found here.