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Transit providers will receive a share of $928.5 million in federal funds for more than 300 public transportation projects in urban, suburban and rural areas, U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood announced yesterday.

The grants are being made available through the Federal Transit Administration’s (FTA) fiscal-year 2011 Alternative Analysis, Bus Livability and State of Good Repair programs. Projects receiving the funds include studies to help communities select “the best transit options to meet future transportation needs,” said FTA officials in a prepared statement.

The FTA reviewed 839 project applications representing $4.9 billion in funding requests for the FY2011 discretionary grants. Examples of selected rail-related project grants include:

• $2 million to the Southeast Michigan Council of Governments for a study of a possible 7.5-mile extension for the first phase of the planned Woodward Avenue light-rail project in Detroit;
• $1.2 million to the San Francisco Transbay Joint Powers Authority to study environmental work for a proposed underground rail extension that would connect the new Transbay Transit Center in downtown San Francisco to an existing Caltrain terminal;
• $1 million to the city of Phoenix to explore transit options for the five-mile South Central Corridor, including light rail, streetcar and bus rapid-transit alternatives;
• $760,000 to the city of New Haven, Conn., to analyze a proposed three-mile streetcar line; and
• $480,000 to the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority to examine options for extending high-capacity transit-rail service.