“2016 has been a pivotal year for the Missouri Public Transit Association. The MPTA Board made the decision on a new management team in January. This team has made rapid progress on moving the organization to the next level including elevating our messaging, providing a more consistent voice and being proactive. While we celebrated our 35th Anniversary this year, we know under this team we will be even stronger moving forward for transit in Missouri,” Cindy Baker, President of the MPTA.
The Missouri Public Transit Association (MPTA) provider members provide more than 67 million rides a year almost everywhere for everybody almost every day in Missouri, and they employ thousands in our communities. Missouri public transit serves customers in every county – rural and urban and everywhere in between – and is critical to meeting the transportation needs of its citizens. Good public transit infrastructure improves access to jobs, healthcare and educational opportunities; brings greater economic development; and promotes reinvestment in underserved parts of our community while binding our communities together.
This year the MPTA set out to accomplish the following goals in 2016:
• Elevate the status of transit in Missouri
• Build new coalitions to expand advocacy base
• Promote and support MPTA members
Elevating the Status of Transit in MO
Federal transportation support has been declining for decades as evidenced by the lack of sufficient funding in the Highway Trust Fund. Citizens are driving fewer miles and vehicles are much more fuel-efficient, leading to lower revenues even from existing gas taxes. Missouri needs its own plan for raising additional transportation revenue, both to control its own infrastructure needs and to show its ability to provide State-funded matching dollars to help attract a healthy share of Federal funding.
There were several wins on the funding front for MPTA members and transit providers this year. Through a partnership with the MPTA and the Missouri Department of Transportation (MoDOT), MoDOT was able to allocate additional funding under 5339 for MO transit providers from 2013, 2014 and 2015 which previously was not available. This impacted providers across the board from large urban to the rural providers. In addition, the legislature approved an additional $1.15 million in operating funds out of the State Transportation Fund account in 2016 doubling operating funding for SFY2017 for the 32 providers in the state ($2,210,875 in total operating funding).
In addition, several Missouri providers including City Utilities of Springfield, City of Columbia COMO Connect and KCATA secured federal grant funding totaling more than $11 million for electric buses, bus replacement and facility updates. The City Utilities of Springfield, Missouri, will receive $3,870,960 in grant funding for new buses and workforce development activities. KCATA will receive $8,986,350 in grant funding for multiple types of buses to replace vehicles that have met their useful life. The City of Columbia was awarded a $1,712,300 grant to purchase low floor battery-electric buses that will replace diesel buses that have exceeded their useful life.
Check more of the highlights for 2016 in the links below:
MPTA 2016 Year in Review
MPTA 2016 YEAR in Review Page 2
Setting the stage for 2017
Community leaders throughout the State have identified public transit priorities that will increase service and yield significant positive economic returns. These plans will improve access to opportunity, attract talent, and create thousands of jobs. MPTA through its network of members, stakeholders and constituents is committed to improving the funding for transit at the state level to ensure these positive benefits for Missouri come to fruition.