Bus Stop | Photo by Grace Ramsdell | The Wright State Guardian
The Greater Dayton Regional Transit Authority (GDRTA) was recently awarded a 4.4-million-dollar federal grant that will be used to replace twelve RTA buses in the near future.
Dayton RTA Funding
A large portion of the money used to fund the RTA comes through various grants. This most recent grant is 1 of 2 recent multi-million-dollar grants awarded to the GDRTA.
“RTA applied for the competitive grant through the Federal Transit Administration,” said GDRT Deputy Chief Executive Officer Bob Ruzinsky. “In general RTA funds about 80% of bus replacement costs with grants.”
One of the GDRTA’s biggest supporters has been Sen. Sherrod Brown, who oversees the Department of Transportation’s Federal Transit Administration.
“GDRTA has continued providing essential workers and many others with necessary travel during the COVID-19 crisis,” said Sen. Brown. “This additional investment will help improve the local bus system for these riders, cut costs and improve reliability for GDRTA and the Dayton community.”
New buses
On average, the lifespan of a GDRTA bus tends to run slightly short of where administration aims for them to be.
“The federal standard is 12 years or 500,000 miles as useful life,” said Chief Executive Officer Mark Donaghy. “We typically hit 500,000 miles in year 9 but plan for them to last 12-15 years.”
The GDRTA plays a vital role in getting Wright State University (WSU) students around the Fairborn/Dayton area.
“Last year I utilized the RTA multiple times during the winter when my car broke down and I needed a ride to work. It was a real life saver for me because I didn’t have any other way to go to work, so it definitely helped me keep my job for a three to four week period while my car was in the shop,” said WSU senior and Guardian News Editor Nick BenVenuto.
The 4.4 million dollar grant will replace twelve buses sometime between late fall 2021 and early 2022, as Ruzinsky also emphasized it can take up to twenty months for a new bus order to be fulfilled.
“Currently RTA is working on the rebuilding of our electric bus power system (the wires you see in the air that power our buses),” said Ruzinsky when asked what the next major GDRTA project would be. “The last major rebuild of this system was in the 1980’s, and parts of the current system date back to the 1940’s.”
