DVRPC approves Race-Vine accessibility improvements

The project, which should get about $3 million over the next two fiscal years, is being paid in large part by federal New Freedom money, designed to help improve accessibility. Including a small local match by the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, Southeastern Pennsylvania is receiving about $1.7 million this fiscal year, a slight year-on-year decrease.

Other projects include travel and mobility training for transit workers and riders with disabilities. One such project in Delaware County did not get funded because of its relatively high per-trainee price tag.

Most programs receive funding for two years through New Freedom.

Similarly, the DVRPC Board approved disbursing $6.4 million in Job Access Reverse Commute funds for fiscal year 2013, keeping all the projects approved last fiscal year.

The program subsidizes transit service designed to provide poorer residents with access to employment centers, like SEPTA routes 124 and 125, which serve Center City and King of Prussia.

The DVRPC Board also approved a SEPTA project to reconstruct aging platforms at 69th Street Terminal for the Norristown High Speed Line, at a cost of $1.5 million, as well as a PennDOT project to add $400,000 in additional all-weather pavement markings on the region’s highways and state roads designed to improve safety. The money is being paid for by federal highway money controlled by PennDOT.