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Federal Transit Administration March 19 published its 2002 Annual Report on New Starts, which recommends funding allocations for new fixed-guideway systems and extensions to existing systems for fiscal-year 2003.



Twenty-seven existing and pending full-funding grant agreements (FFGAs) have been recommended for funding next year, as have seven additional projects. Of the 34, all but two are rail-related. The projects range from an elevated monorail serving the Las Vegas "strip" to a commuter rail extension under New York’s East River improving Long Island Rail Road’s access to the eastern part of midtown Manhattan.



Geographically, projects with pending and existing FFGAs range from San Diego to Boston, and Portland, Ore., to San Juan, Puerto Rico, as well as Salt Lake City, Denver, Dallas, St. Louis, Chicago, Minneapolis, Memphis, Tenn., Atlanta, New Orleans, Pittsburgh, Newark, N.J., Baltimore, and Washington, D.C.



Fifty additional transit projects are in preliminary engineering or final design stages. These projects further extend transit’s presence in 30 states and District of Columbia, and in cities with populations ranging from more than 5 million to less than 500,000.



The Annual Report is a collateral document to the president’s annual budget submitted to Congress for approval.