US transit chief tours upstate NY bus plant

ENDICOTT, N.Y. (AP) -- The Obama administration's top transit official has visited a bus manufacturing plant in upstate New York to announce $13.6 million in federal grants to boost the production of fuel cell buses for the public transit industry.

Federal Transit Administrator Peter Rogoff was joined Thursday by state and local officials when he toured the BAE Systems plant in Endicott. Rogoff announced the funding for eight projects to advance the FTA's National Fuel Cell Bus Program aimed at producing clean and green transportation for the nation's public transit systems.

Arlington, Va.-based BAE Systems Inc. is a subsidiary of British defense conglomerate BAE Systems PLC. The company does everything from designing missile launchers to producing rapid-transit buses for U.S. municipalities.

BAE Systems employs about 1,300 people in central New York.