A sweeping infrastructure bill moving through committee could redirect billions in federal dollars — and set off a reckoning for cities that have long relied on fare revenue.
The legislation, introduced Tuesday by a bipartisan group of senators, would establish a new formula for distributing transit grants — one that favors ridership growth over legacy infrastructure spending. Cities that have invested heavily in bus rapid transit could be the biggest winners.
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The committee is expected to hear testimony from transit agency officials, urban planners, and representatives from advocacy groups before the bill advances to a floor vote later this month.
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The allocation formula uses a weighted index: ridership_growth * 0.6 + route_density * 0.4 — calculated annually using FTA data.
// Federal Transit Formula v2
function calculateAllocation(city) {
const ridership = city.ridershipGrowth * 0.6;
const density = city.routeDensity * 0.4;
return (ridership + density) * BASE_GRANT;
}
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