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Cobb County approves nearly $15M FTA grant request for CNG buses, reassigns funds and adopts service changes
Summary
The Board approved submission of up to $14.95 million in Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality (CMAQ) funds to buy 18 compressed-natural-gas buses for Cobb Link, reallocated $8.19 million in previously approved funds for 10 replacement buses, and adopted Title VI service equity changes with implementation in June.
The Cobb County Board of Commissioners on May 13 authorized submission of a Federal Transit Administration Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality (CMAQ) grant request of up to $14,946,363 to procure 18 compressed-natural-gas buses for Cobb Link and approved reallocating $8,193,500 in previously approved federal and local funds to replace 10 additional CNG buses.
County transportation staff told commissioners the purchase would replace vehicles that have reached the Federal Transit Administration’s useful-life threshold — generally 10 to 12 years or about 500,000 miles — and would not increase fleet size. The agenda item also authorized corresponding budget transactions and empowered the chairwoman or her designee to execute required documents. The board approved the item unanimously.
During the discussion, the chair asked about the utility of substituting discretionary ARC (Atlanta Regional Commission) funding for formula funds. County transportation staff said the ARC award is more specific to replacement buses and replacing formula funds with discretionary funds frees up formula funding for other operating and capital needs within the transit program, subject to future board approval.
The board separately approved an update to the airport’s Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) program plan, a federal requirement for airport grant recipients. Staff explained the DBE program dates to a 1983 Congressional requirement and that the Federal Aviation Administration requires airports receiving more than $250,000 in federal funding to maintain a current DBE plan; the county approved the airport plan update unanimously.
On service changes, the board adopted two Title VI service equity analyses and authorized implementation of recommended modifications: adjustments to CobbLink commuter routes 100, 101 and 102 effective June 16, 2025, and changes to the CobbLink Green Circulator effective June 15, 2025. Commissioners were told the changes accompany broader route coordination, including an intergovernmental agreement with the Atlanta-region transit authority (Atlanta Region Transit Link Authority) to continue and expand express commuter bus service in Cobb County through June 30, 2026.
Other transportation actions on the regular agenda included authorization to apply for a $8 million supplemental local maintenance and improvement grant from the Georgia Department of Transportation, approval of a freight-cluster planning grant application to the Atlanta Regional Commission, and a set of change orders that produced net savings of $5,603,458.62 on completed resurfacing projects. All of those measures passed unanimously.
The board’s votes leave in place a plan to replace aging buses, implement near-term route modifications for equity compliance, and continue an express-commuter partnership with the regional authority while freeing some formula funds for other transit operating needs.
