St. Paul, MN (KROC-AM News) - The Dayton administration today announced that Rochester will receive a share of $23.7 million in grants aimed at expanding transit services in Greater Minnesota.

Officials say the City of Rochester will receive about $2.7 million. Rochester Public Transit says the impact of the funds will be seen in July when the previously-planned addition of Sunday bus service will be expanded to include ZIPS service. The money will also be help accelerate holiday bus service, which will also begin in July. The MnDOT grant will also support the purchase of five new buses that will be added to the fleet to support new crosstown routes.

“Transit matters in every corner of Minnesota. Residents of Greater Minnesota took 12.2 million transit trips in 2015 alone. The need is only expected to grow in coming years,” said Lt. Governor Tina Smith. “These new grants will help provide more Minnesotans reliable transit access.”

The grant money is being spread among 23 transit providers outside of the Twin Cities, which represent over half of the total number of transit systems in Greater Minnesota.The largest grant, which total over $4 million, was awarded to St. Cloud, while Duluth will receive almost $4 million and Mankato’s grant is close to $3.2 million. A transit service serving residents of Fillmore, Mower, Steele and Waseca Counties was awarded about $470,000 and another operation in Wabasha, Goodhue and Rice Counties will get over $600,000.

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