NVTA planning committee backs TransAction update, directs staff to advance regional BRT planning

The Planning and Programming Committee of the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority voted Nov. 21 to endorse sending the TransAction long-range plan update to the Authority for adoption at its Dec. 8 meeting.

The recommendation backs a TransAction project list that staff said includes 424 projects (down from 429 in the last draft), with an estimated total project cost of about $75,000,000,000 and roughly $44.5 billion in transit-related projects. Staff said the subset of Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) and other high-capacity transit in the list accounts for about $10,000,000,000 of that transit total. Committee members voted by voice to recommend approval; the chair announced “the ayes have it.”

TransAction is a fiscally unconstrained regional needs assessment and eligibility list, not a funding commitment. Presenter Keith (NVTA planning staff) told the committee the plan follows the Code of Virginia and that inclusion on the TransAction list makes projects initially eligible for future NVTA funding cycles but does not itself authorize funding. “It is always completely…