The MBTA has been awarded $10.3 million in federal reimbursement funds for costs related to the cleaning and sanitation of its public transit system during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency grant will reimburse the MBTA for the costs associated with disinfecting its equipment and facilities between July and September 2020, as well as other steps taken to keep commuters and employees safe during the public-health emergency.
“FEMA is pleased to be able to assist the MBTA with these costs,” said FEMA Region 1 Regional Administrator Lori Ehrlich in a statement. “Keeping public transit operating safely during the pandemic was critical to allowing essential workers to continue to commute to their jobs, as well as providing service to the general public.”
According to a FEMA statement, the MBTA used contract labor and paid overtime for its employees to disinfect the Red, Orange, Blue and Green subway lines, along with its buses, commuter rail, ferry and The RIDE, which is the agency’s door-to-door paratransit service system.
The grant will also reimburse the MBTA for providing its staff with personal protective equipment, such as gloves, masks, hand sanitizer and wipes; installing barriers between operators and the public; and installing signage and crowd-control measures to keep the system “safe and operating,” FEMA said.
The reimbursement grant comes at a time when the MBTA is facing a $236 million budget gap when its federal relief funds run out in fiscal year 2024.
Spokesperson Joe Pesaturo said the T “budgeted these funds with the expectation of a FEMA reimbursement,” so the funds were anticipated in its financial projections. The only question, he said, was the timing of when the funds would arrive.
The grant was awarded to the MBTA through FEMA’s public assistance program, which “is an essential source of funding for states and communities recovering from a federally declared disaster or emergency.”
The federal agency has provided more than $1 billion through this program to Massachusetts to reimburse it for pandemic-related costs.
