Bus and Bus Facilities Program

The Bus and Bus Facilities Program (also called “Section 5339”) is a federally-funded capital grant program initiated within the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century (MAP-21) authorization bill, and continued in the FAST Act (Fixing America’s Surface Transportation) that provides capital funding to replace, rehabilitate, and purchase buses and related equipment and to construct bus-related facilities.

The Wisconsin Department of Transportation (WisDOT) allocates funds to urban transit systems based upon formula, and also awards discretionary grants to transit systems serving a population of between 50,000 and 200,000 based on evaluation criteria such as consistency with local transit priorities, age and deferred maintenance of vehicles or facilities, and demonstrated commitment of local share.

WisDOT also submits a separate application to the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) for the national Section 5339 Discretionary program on behalf of all public transit systems currently receiving federal and state operating assistance.

WisDOT awards Section 5339 formula grant funds and determines projects to submit in the statewide discretionary application via the annual Public Transit Assistance Program (PTAP). This program’s application is made available online in WisDOT’s BlackCat® Grant Management System each fall.

Contact:

Steve Hirshfeld
stephen.hirshfeld@dot.wi.gov
(608) 267-0209