WASHINGTON, D.C.—U.S. Senators Olympia Snowe (R-ME) and Susan Collins (R-ME) today announced $983,679 in federal funding to the Maine Department of Transportation. The federal grant is awarded by the Federal Transit Administration under the U.S. Department of Transportation. "This federal funding will assist in enhancing and improving transportation services to ensure that all Mainers have access to more dependable services," Snowe and Collins said in a joint statement. The federal grants were allocated as follows: • The Greater Portland Transit District will receive clean fuel buses to replace the diesel fuel buses providing transportation to fixed route services within the city of Portland.
• Western Maine Transportation Services will acquire eight accessible replacement vans providing transportation to routes within western rural Maine.
These new routes will enable rural and urban individuals, elderly, disabled and the transportation disadvantaged to gain better general public access to transportation services that would otherwise be unavailable.