WASHINGTON, DC -- U.S. Congressman John L. Mica (R-Volusia County) today announced that VOTRAN has been awarded two federal grants to purchase buses and conduct engineering and design of the DeLand Intermodal Transportation Facility.
"These federal dollars will assist Volusia County as it works to provide additional transit services to those citizens who depend on public transportation," Mica stated.
$531,186 was awarded under the Federal Transit Administration Capital Program Bus Allocations for Fiscal Year 2003. It will provide for the purchase of two under -30- foot diesel replacement buses and seven under -30-foot diesel expansion buses to upgrade the paratransit fleet operated by VOTRAN. This approval represents a portion of an available $5,902.072 from an FY 2003 Capital Program Bus allocation earmarked by Congress for the East Coast Florida Transit Coalition.
$170,000 was awarded under the Federal Transit Administration Capital Program Bus Allocations for Fiscal Year 2003 for the engineering and design of the DeLand Intermodal Transportation Facility by the City of DeLand, in cooperation with VOTRAN. This approval represents a portion of an available $1,721,438 from an FY 2003 allocation earmarked by Congress.
The DeLand Intermodal Facility will become a west-side hub for VOTRAN and will serve as the Greyhound Bus Station. Area citizens will also benefit from access to a trolley service to downtown DeLand. Finally, the intermodal center will be linked to the Central Florida Commuter Rail project which has been proposed to operate on 52 miles of CSX tracks from Volusia to Kissimmee.
Mica continued, "We hope to continue developing our community’s intermodal facilities while our region makes its decisions relating to future mass transit service."