The Metropolitan Transit System board of directors March 17 unanimously approved $108 million for the fiscal year 2017 Capital Improvement Program.
“The MTS CIP is an important road map for planning and funding assets for San Diego’s transit system,” said MTS CEO Paul Jablonski. “And having more than $100 million to allocate in CIP funds is very healthy for an agency our size. “This includes new trolleys and buses, transit facility upgrades, hundreds of bus benches and bus shelters, technology improvements and more. MTS is committed to providing the best rider experience possible and the CIP helps us achieve this goal.” The MTS CIP projects receiving the most funding in 2017 are:
· Eight new low-floor trolleys – $31 million;
· 45 compressed natural gas buses – $23 million;
· New transit facility (location TBD) – $7.1 million;
· New courthouse trolley station on C Street between State and Union streets – $5.7 million;
· 46 near-zero emission paratransit buses – $4.7 million.
MTS also uses CIP funding as the basis for federal, state and local grant applications. The CIP process began in October 2015 with an internal call for projects from MTS departments. Each department submitted its capital project requests in priority order, and the lists were consolidated for review by the Capital Projects Review Committee (CPRC). The CPRC reviewed the projects in the context of their impact on operations and determined the most critical projects to fund this year. The MTS Budget Development Committee, made up of several MTS Board members, then approved the CIP for full board consideration. For more information about the all the MTS CIP projects selected, visit sdmts.com.
MTS operates 95 bus routes and three trolley lines on 53 miles of double-tracked railway. Every weekday more than 300,000 passenger trips are taken on MTS bus and trolley services. MTS set a new record in FY 2015 with 96.7 million riders. For more information on how you can use public transportation and save money, go to sdmts.com.
