US transit gets increase in federal funding: many rail and bus transit operators in the United States will benefit from a 5.2% increase in federal funding. In addition, some cities will also benefit from schemes that were approved by voters last year

International Railway Journal, March, 2005 by Luther Miller

A number of cities will start to reap the benefit this year of successful rail initiatives they put to voters last year. One is Denver, whose Regional Transportation District announced in December that a tax increase approved by voters in November would raise $US 158 million this year, of which $US 82.7 million would be assigned to get its so-called FasTracks project moving. This includes the construction of 191.5km of new light rail and commuter rail lines.

One thing that will doubtless happen this year that failed to materialise last year is the reauthorisation of the TEA-21 Act. This long-term transport funding bill expired 17 months ago. Congress and the White House have been billions of dollars apart on the size of the new entitlement. Both Democrats and Republicans have united to seek higher funding levels than the White House wants. As President Nixon remarked in signing the landmark Urban Mass Transportation Act of 1970, which got it all started, "Transportation is not a partisan problem."