Nashville Loses Out on Federal Transit Grant, Adding to Agency's Budget Woes

"[Last] week, federal officials announced the winners of its annual BUILD grant; Nashville, for the second year in a row, was not one of them," reports Eric Hilt.

WeGo Public Transit’s request for $10.7 million from the Department of Transportation would have been used to build a multimodal transit center in North Nashville.

WeGo Public Transit officials say that competition for federal funds is high, but transit advocates say this is a "wake-up call" for the agency, which also is dealing with an $8 million budget shortfall. "Earlier this year, the transportation group had to eliminate some bus routes and raise bus fares because of budget issues," notes Hilt.