Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority

Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority, doing business as VTA, is a U.S. local government transit authority serving Santa Clara County, California, that receives federal grant funding as a prime recipient from the Department of Transportation's Federal Transit Administration (FTA) to support public transportation capital and operating programs. VTA operates as a transit authority and inter-municipal organization with no federal contracting work; nearly all federal engagement flows through FTA formula and project grants rather than competitive procurements.

VTA's federal footprint centers on transit infrastructure and fleet modernization funded through FTA's formula grant programs. Recent grant awards include $73.6 million under the Federal Transit Formula Grants program (CFDA 20.507) awarded June 25, 2026 for one year of preventive maintenance and operating assistance; $20.952 million under the State of Good Repair Grants Program (CFDA 20.525) awarded June 4, 2026 for capital projects including rolling stock rehabilitation and facility upgrades; $27.21 million under the same SGR program awarded March 16, 2026 for light rail system replacement and rehabilitation including repair of light rail bridges and structures, signal improvements, trackway intrusion prevention, and HVAC system replacement; and $19.486 million under the Buses and Bus Facilities Formula program (CFDA 20.526) awarded September 18, 2025 for procurement of sixteen diesel-hybrid buses. Additional recent grants include $4.21 million for three electric buses (CFDA 20.526, August 22, 2025), $2.5 million under Community Project Funding (CFDA 20.534, August 25, 2025) for the new Cerone Operations Command and Control Center, and $1.22 million (CFDA 20.507, August 21, 2025) for advanced passenger management systems serving elderly and disabled transit riders. VTA also received $500 thousand under the SMART Grants Program (CFDA 20.941) from the Department of Transportation's Immediate Office of the Secretary for real-time data collection on bike rack and mobility device usage, and $1.692 million under the same SMART program for multi-jurisdictional transit signal priority implementation. One minor federal purchase order of $10,950.64 from GSA's Federal Acquisition Service for automotive mechanical repairs appears in the contracting record.

FTA dominates VTA's customer concentration: 108 awards from the Federal Transit Administration comprise 95% of all awards in the source data. The Department of Transportation's Immediate Office of the Secretary accounts for 8 awards totaling $55 thousand combined potential value, GSA Federal Acquisition Service holds 4 awards ($22 thousand combined potential value), and the Federal Emergency Management Agency and Federal Highway Administration round out the active set with smaller volumes. VTA receives no set-aside designations and does not compete under 8(a), HUBZone, SDVOSB, or WOSB frameworks; as a U.S. government entity, VTA operates as a grant recipient on federal programs rather than a federal contractor.

All prime grant awards involve no subrecipients; VTA executes funded activities directly. VTA's sub-award footprint is minimal—four sub-awards total—including a COVID-19 pandemic response sub-award from the Office of Emergency Services (January 31, 2025) and operating assistance and transportation infrastructure sub-awards from the Department of Transportation and the California Department of Transportation. Activity has remained modest in recent years: 5 awards in 2022, 4 in 2023, 6 in 2024, 8 in 2025, and 3 through June 2026. Seven awards carry ultimate completion dates within the next twenty-four months.