Central Illinois congressmen announce $8 million Connect Transit grant

Posted on August 20, 2020
Congressmen Darin LaHood (left) , Rodney Davis (middle) and Connect Transit General Manager Issac Thorne (right) announced Connect Transit will receive an $8 million grant. (Photo courtesy: Blake Haas/WJBC)

By Blake Haas

BLOOMINGTON – Two central Illinois congressmen visited the Twin-Cities on Thursday to announce an $8 million grant to build a new downtown transfer center.

Announced by Congressmen Darin LaHood (R-Dunlap) and Rodney Davis (R-Taylorville), the new center will serve ten bus routes and 1,800 daily boardings. The new center will also offer riders protection from weather and improved safety, access, amenities, and transit service.

“This has been apart of the long-term plan for really building out our mass transit system in an area that’s seen it’s grown in use until COVID,” said Davis. “But we can’t stop planning because COVID as Darin and I like to remind people it’s going to go away. We (have) to look ahead. I’m so glad that this administration in Washington D.C. has agreed that we need to continue to invest in our community and our mass transit systems.”

The $8 million grant is apart of the Bus Facilities Competitive Grant awarded by the U.S. Department of Transportation and Federal Transit Administration.

“This $8 million adds to the total of $25 million because you have tremendous leadership,” added LaHood. “People that care deeply because you have buy-in from your community. I was thinking about a number of descriptions a number of the things that I think about when I think about Connect Transit. Innovation. Collaboration. Community buy-in, but also delivering a product that’s efficient, effective, reliable, and looks out for the safety of your citizens here.”

In July, LaHood and Davis announced over $93,000 in grant funding for Connect Transit to be used for wages, cleaning and disinfecting personal protection equipment (PPE), and other eligible expenses for fixed-route and ADA paratransit service.

WATCH: Ryan Whitehouse, Chairman of Connect Transit’s Board of Trustees announced the new grant: 

“It’s only about 5-years ago that Connect Transit won the best small metro transit system in North America and were on the next phase of moving forward,” said Bloomington Mayor Tari Renner. “In addition to that the nature of the grant money that were getting, the downtown transfer center that our distinguished congressmembers have helped us obtain. (This) is something that is really critical for downtown development. It’s critical for having a mobile workforce so that people from the east side can get to jobs on the west side.”

After the ceremony, Davis, and LaHood, along with Ryan Whitehouse, Chairman of Connect Transit’s Board of Trustees, awarded outgoing Connect Transit General Manager Issac Thorne with an old bus ticket collector.

Congressmen Darin LaHood and Rodney Davis (left) present outgoing Connect Transit General Manager Issac Thorne an old bus ticket collector. (Photo courtesy: Blake Haas/WJBC)

Thorne is resigning August 21 for a transit job in Tennessee.

Blake Haas can be reached at [email protected].

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