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The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (LACMTA) plans to use a $2 million federal grant to analyze transit alternatives for the Van Nuys corridor in the San Fernando Valley and for other Measure R transit projects.

The grant notice from the Federal Transit Administration’s (FTA) $25.7 million Alternatives Analysis Livability Initiative represents the maximum possible agency award. LACMTA now will submit a grant application for the $2 million, agency officials said in a prepared statement.

The Van Nuys corridor analysis will be part of the East San Fernando Valley North-South Rapidways Project designed to improve transit speeds on key valley corridors. The goal of the Van Nuys project: to significantly improve mobility in the corridor’s most densely populated section.

An alternatives analysis will analyze a no-build and transportation systems management alternatives, as well as build alternatives including light rail, streetcars and bus rapid transit.

Of the $1.33 million total cost for the study, the FTA will fund approximately $970,000 and LACMTA will contribute $360,000 with state and local funds. The agency has already released a request for proposals to conduct the study, LACMTA officials said.

The grant notice also would fund technical work that will improve the agency’s travel-demand forecasting model, which will analyze transit service capacity, vehicle overcrowding and bus “bunching.” Of the $1.41 million total cost for the modeling, the FTA will contribute $1.03 million and LACMTA will contribute about $380,000.