FY2024 Competitive Funding Opportunity: Buses and Bus Facilities Program | FTA 2024 004 TPM BUS

Opportunity Information: Apply for FTA 2024 004 TPM BUS

The FY2024 Competitive Funding Opportunity: Buses and Bus Facilities Program is a discretionary grant competition run by the U.S. Department of Transportation through the Federal Transit Administration (FTA). For this round, FTA is making roughly $394 million available nationwide to support capital projects tied to bus service. The focus is on practical, tangible improvements to transit fleets and the infrastructure that keeps buses operating day to day, with funding intended to help agencies modernize service, improve reliability, and address state of good repair needs.

The money can be used for a wide range of bus and bus-facility capital costs. Eligible projects include replacing or rehabilitating buses, purchasing or leasing buses, and buying related equipment needed to operate and maintain the fleet. On the facilities side, the program supports rehabilitating, purchasing, constructing, or leasing bus-related facilities. In plain terms, this can cover major fleet upgrades as well as investments in the buildings and infrastructure that support fixed-route bus operations, such as maintenance and storage facilities and other bus-support assets, as long as the work qualifies as an eligible capital project under the program rules.

Applications are competitive, meaning projects are scored against each other rather than funded by a formula allocation. The full announcement and synopsis are posted on Grants.gov under opportunity number FTA-2024-004-TPM-BUS (Funding Opportunity Number: FTA 2024 004 TPM BUS). All proposals have to be submitted electronically through Grants.gov, and the deadline for submission is 11:59 PM Eastern Time on April 25, 2024. Because the submission is electronic and time-stamped, applicants typically need to plan for registration requirements and upload time so they are not trying to finalize everything at the last minute.

Eligible applicants are centered on public entities that run or manage fixed-route bus service, along with tribal governments. Specifically, eligible applicants include designated recipients that distribute funds to fixed-route bus operators; States (including territories and Washington, D.C.) or local governmental entities that operate fixed-route bus service; and federally recognized Indian tribes. The opportunity also recognizes subrecipients. Eligible subrecipients include all entities that are otherwise eligible to apply directly, and it additionally allows private nonprofit organizations that are engaged in public transportation to participate as subrecipients. This structure is meant to let a broader set of transit providers benefit from the funding while keeping the primary applicant role with eligible governmental or tribal entities.

A key rule applies to rural projects (non-urbanized areas). With the exception of projects proposed by Indian tribes, any proposal for a project located in a rural area must be submitted by a State. The State can submit a project on its own or bundle multiple projects together as part of a statewide application. This requirement matters for smaller communities and rural operators because it affects who can be the applicant of record and how project sponsors should coordinate with their State DOT or other State-level transit administering agency.

From the source details, the program is categorized as discretionary funding and uses a grant as the funding instrument, with the activity category listed as transportation and CFDA number 20.526. The opportunity anticipates around 50 awards, and the listed award ceiling is $39,004,582, indicating that while many awards may be smaller, some projects could be funded at a large scale depending on merit, readiness, and the program’s selection priorities. The announcement was created on February 8, 2024, giving applicants a defined window to develop project narratives, assemble budgets and supporting documentation, and coordinate any required partnerships or State submissions, particularly for rural proposals.

• The DOT/Federal Transit Administration in the transportation sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "FY2024 Competitive Funding Opportunity: Buses and Bus Facilities Program" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 20.526.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2024-02-08.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2024-04-25. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $39,004,582.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 50 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: State governments, County governments, City or township governments, Native American tribal governments (Federally recognized), Others.

Apply for FTA 2024 004 TPM BUS

[Watch] Creating a grant proposal using the step-by-step wizard inside the applicant portal: