On July 12, Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell announced that two transit projects that will improve transit service, livability and technology received a total of nearly $9 million in Federal Transit Administration (FTA) funding.

PennDOT received $5 million to update technologies which support and enhance human service, curb-to-curb transportation services to improve efficiency and cost effectiveness statewide. Examples include acquiring paratransit scheduling and vehicle locator technology, automated telephone service, web-based trip scheduling and real-time information access.

The grant is matched with $10 million in federal funding PennDOT receives for rural public transportation and $5 million in state discretionary funding. The grant will be distributed over the next five years based upon human service transportation providers' need, readiness and commitment to implement efficiency measures.

The second grant is nearly $4 million to the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) toward the cost of completely renovating the Wayne Junction Intermodal Facility, which was built about a century ago. SEPTA and the state are still working on identifying money to pay the balance of the project's $20 million total cost.

Pennsylvania received the grants from a $163 million program administered by U.S. Department of Transportation. Winners of two competitive grant programs were announced in Washington. The two Pennsylvania grants were among 47 projects aimed at upgrading bus services and facilities through the FTA's Bus and Bus Livability Program.

Pennsylvania's Transportation Advisory Committee issued a report in May identifying $484 million in unmet public transit needs this year. The shortfall grows to more than $3 billion by 2029-30.