FTA to mark 60th anniversary

The Federal Transit Administration on Tuesday will mark 60 years since President Lyndon Johnson signed the Urban Mass Transportation Act.

Since then, the FTA has helped develop transit in America from scattered bus systems and a small number of high-capacity systems to a diverse set of transit providers in thousands of communities, according to an FTA news release.

The FTA now administers a $20 billion annual program. Its milestones include:

• In July 1971, the agency awarded the first federal grant to support transit on an American Indian reservation. The initial award of $120,000 went to the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation (the Three Affiliated Tribes) of the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation in North Dakota; and
• U.S. transit systems' subway, light-rail, streetcar and related systems trackage now totals 4,530 miles. Of those, 4,074 miles have been built or replaced through the FTA since 1960.