Community Transit Grant Program

The Massachusetts Department of Transportation Rail and Transit Division administers the Community Transit Grant Program to expand mobility for older adults and people with disabilities in Massachusetts. The operating and mobility management cycle also permits projects serving low-income individuals through the state funding stream. The program traditionally uses Federal Transit Administration Section 5310 Enhanced Mobility of Seniors and Individuals with Disabilities funds. For the fourth consecutive year, the FY27 state budget also provides $4 million in state Education and Transportation Funding to expand the Community Transit Grant Program. The federal Section 5310 program focuses on transportation services that meet the mobility needs of older adults and people with disabilities, while the state funding can additionally support projects serving low-income riders. This funding opportunity is specifically for operating and mobility management projects. Applicants seeking wheelchair-accessible vehicles must use the separate Community Transit Grant Program vehicle cycle. Eligible grant costs for operating and mobility management projects generally must be direct project costs, such as driver wages, fuel, maintenance, and administrative costs that can be directly associated with the project. Indirect costs may be reimbursable when an organization has an approved Indirect Cost Allocation Plan or has obtained MassDOT approval before application submission to use the 10 percent de minimis rate. Vehicle purchases, giveaways, incentives, and fare passes are not eligible expenses. The budget must represent the amount requested from this grant program rather than the full cost of the applicant's program. Awards are reimbursement based, and projects may receive full, partial, or conditional funding. The state and federal funding streams have different matching requirements. State funding does not require local match. If MassDOT has sufficient state funding, it intends to use state funding for operating and mobility management awards. If state funding is insufficient, qualifying projects may receive federal Section 5310 funding. Federal funding requires a 50 percent local match for operating projects and a 20 percent local match for mobility management projects. Applicants must indicate in the budget how much local match they could provide if selected for federal funding. Permitted federal-award match sources include local government appropriations, local dedicated tax revenues, private donations, certain organizational contracts, state funding, eligible non-DOT federal funding, and properly documented eligible in-kind contributions. Fare revenue and Federal DOT program funds, including Section 5311 funds, cannot be used as local match. Eligible applicants include private nonprofits providing transportation service to seniors and/or persons with disabilities where publicly operated mass transportation is unavailable, insufficient, or inappropriate; governmental entities such as Regional Transit Authorities, municipalities, or Councils on Aging providing such service where private nonprofit organizations are not readily available; and private taxi operators providing shared-ride public transportation to the general public on a regular basis. Private operators are encouraged to contact MassDOT before applying because Section 5310 requirements apply to their services. Municipal receipt of grant funds is also contingent on compliance with applicable Massachusetts General Laws, including the MBTA Communities Act, by the time award recommendations are developed. Projects serving low-income communities must either be associated with an organization whose core mission is serving low-income people or demonstrate a partnership with an organization focused on serving low-income individuals, with an appropriate letter of support. Applications are submitted through MassDOT's online form. Applicants should first obtain the pre-application training materials, read the instructions, download and complete a separate budget template for each proposed project, prepare responses to the organizational and project questions, and prepare required attachments. Letters of support must be compiled into one PDF for each project, and additional attachments, if submitted, must likewise be compiled into one PDF for each project. Organizations using an approved Indirect Cost Allocation Plan should be prepared to provide the federal cognizant agency approval letter. Applicants proposing multiple distinct projects must submit them separately. The online form permits applicants to save work for later before documents are uploaded; once documents are uploaded, the applicant must finish and submit the application. New applicants must attend training when applicable. MassDOT first conducts a threshold review covering completeness, timely submission, applicable training, organizational eligibility, project eligibility under state and federal guidelines, consistency with the Regional Coordinated Human Service Transportation Plan, sufficient local match where applicable, and organizational grant-management capacity or existing grantee performance. Applications passing this review are evaluated by external reviewers for project need and benefit, project design and implementation, monitoring and evaluation, budget and sustainability, local match, and coordination with other agencies and transportation services. Higher point values are associated with addressing unmet local or regional transportation needs, coordinating across sectors without duplicating existing services, involving riders in planning and evaluation, and prioritizing older adults and people with disabilities while making unused capacity available more broadly when possible. MassDOT may also seek input from transit authorities, Regional Planning Agencies, and other stakeholders and may negotiate project scope and deliverables before final awards. The application opened September 1, 2026, and the completed online application is due October 30, 2026. MassDOT recommends submitting before the deadline and provides technical assistance throughout the application period. Questions may be directed to Molly Belanger at Molly.A.Belanger@dot.state.ma.us or (857) 368-8961. There is no stated minimum or maximum amount applicants may request and no stated minimum or maximum number of awards. Grant funding is expected to be available from January 1, 2027 through June 30, 2029, with budgets divided among FY27, FY28, and FY29 periods specified in the instructions. Following awards, funding will be provided contractually on a reimbursement basis, contract term dates will be negotiated post-award, and funded applicants will be required to submit quarterly reports covering project status, accomplishments, and key metrics such as participants served and ridership.

Demonstrate an unmet local or regional transportation need using local evidence and the applicable CHST Plan; coordinate across sectors and show that the project builds on rather than duplicates existing transportation; involve riders in planning implementation and evaluation; provide a clear project design implementation timeline metrics budget and sustainability strategy; address service for people with disabilities and people who speak languages other than English; make the local-match capacity clear in case federal Section 5310 funds are used; submit before the deadline when possible