North County Transit District (NCTD) is going to be receiving $10.7 million in federal stimulus money, and Ramona’s share of that will be—not one thin dime.
When the funding was announced this past week, it raised hopes that some of the NCTD services for Ramona, which have been cut, would be restored. Specifically, residents were hoping for the return of the FAST bus, a mini-bus that offered door-to-door service,  the LIFT bus for those with wheelchairs, and more frequent bus runs between Ramona and Escondido.
But it’s not to be. NCTD will receive $10,739,815 under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, but the act specifies that these new federal funds are to be used “only for capital expenditures.”
“The funds cannot be used for operations, which is where struggling transit districts have been hit the hardest,” said NCTD spokesman Sarah Benson. “The money has to be used for shovel-ready capital projects that have been in the planning stages.”
That’s not good news for Ramona, but it is for Oceanside, which will get the new San Luis Rey Transit Center that has been on the drawing board for 10 years. The money will also go to replacing a part of a railroad bridge, retrofitting existing transit centers with new equipment and for other improvements around the district.
But Ramonans will have to leave town to see any of these changes.