Senator Warner joined Senator Jim Webb and the Department of Transportation today in announcing $116 million from the economy recovery package will be given to fund public transit projects in Virginia.

The funds will go toward projects in both urban and rural areas of the state and may be spent on a wide range of public transit investments such as commuter rail and buses, light rail, and HOV lanes.

Here's what Senator Warner had to say about the funding:

"Our public transit systems typically have been underfunded for years. These federal dollars will help Virginians commute to their jobs and allow for overdue investments in Metro, commuter rail, and rural and urban public transit systems across Virginia."

The $116 million dollars will be split into three different buckets:

• $93,340,956 for urban area transit capital projects
• $18,555,163 for rural area transit capital projects
• $4,209,386 for to modernize or improve existing fixed-transit systems

Since there were no earmarks in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), the federal dollars will be distributed by the Governor's office, based on requests submitted at http://stimulus.virginia.gov.  The deadline for submissions is Friday.

For more information, click here to read our press release.  

Earlier this week, we announced money from the recovery package that was allocated to community health centers in Virginia.