On Friday, January 15, 2010, the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) announced its solicitation requirements for grant applications for its Over-the-Road Bus Accessibility Program for Fiscal Year 2009. The grant program makes available $10.7 million in federal funding for bus operators to make improvements to help provide additional mobility options for persons with disabilities.

This year's program is unique in that the amount of available funding was increased above the amount appropriated by Congress. Some operators successfully applied for and received authorization for grant funding and either did not use or were unable to access their funding under the FY 2006 program. About $1.9 million of those FY 2006 ADA grant funds have been re-released as part of this solicitation.

ABA has prepared some sample grant application materials to assist ABA members in completing their grant applications. Grant funds can be utilized to absorb the costs of installing lifts onto existing fleet vehicles (retrofitting), defray the costs of installing lifts as a component of a new vehicle, as well as provide training sessions for company personnel relating to interactions with special needs passengers, lift maintenance and other operational activities.

Operators should note that successful grants typically range between $25,000 and $180,000, with the federal funding providing up to 90% of the project costs (operators have to come up with at least a 10% match). Generally speaking, to make a lift installation onto a single motorcoach costs approximately $50,000.

Completed applications must be submitted either by mail to your respective FTA regional office or electronically through www.grants.gov by April 15, 2010. Contact information for the FTA regional offices can be found at http://www.fta.dot.gov/about/about_FTA_FTA_Offices.html#regions.

Since 1999, the FTA has made about $47.7 million available to help private motorcoach operators through the over-the-road-bus (OTRB) accessibility grant program (also known as the ADA grant program) thanks to ABA's lobbying efforts in the highway reauthorization bills. The purpose of this grant program is to help defray the costs of compliance for private motorcoach companies under the terms of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

How does the ADA Grant Process Work?

The FTA typically announces the opportunity to submit project applications for the ADA grants on an annual basis, generally during the winter months. It uses publications such as the Federal Register, and the FTA website. Once the application period (30-60 business days) closes, the grants are ranked and scored by the FTA staff through a competitive process.

The grant criteria considers:

Following the competitive evaluation process, the grant money is then distributed to successful applicants directly, and is administered through each of the FTA regional offices.

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