(New Orleans, LA) —Today, the New Orleans Regional Transit Authority (RTA) announced the award of a $550,000 grant from the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) to study and develop design standards for a proposed Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) corridor initially between East New Orleans and downtown.

BRT is a high-quality bus-based transit system that can deliver fast and efficient service that may include dedicated lanes, busways, and traffic signal priority.  The RTA seeks to utilize BRT, a national best practice, to improve transit times for residents on critical corridors throughout the region with an emphasis on the West Bank and East New Orleans, areas which analysis shows longer commute times to downtown.

The project receiving funding today will help the RTA to define BRT for future expansion within the region and will leverage previous and ongoing work including the New Links regional redesign study and the RTA’s Strategic Mobility Plan. The project will deliver a plan with conceptual operations, design characteristics, construction costs, implementation, and funding strategies for the proposed corridor.

FTA’s Helping Obtain Prosperity for Everyone (HOPE) Program supports projects that will improve transit services or facilities in areas of persistent poverty through planning, engineering, or development of technical, or financing plans for projects. FTA announced 25 projects in 17 states that will receive a share of approximately $8.5 million in funding through the Helping Obtain Prosperity for Everyone (HOPE) Program.