THE FEDERAL TRANSIT ADMINISTRATION on Tuesday awarded $366 million in bus infrastructure grants to 107 projects in 50 states, including a $2.4 grant to the Pioneer Valley Transit Authority in Massachusetts.

The authority, which serves 24 cities and towns in western Massachusetts, plans to use the money to convert its 110-year-old bus maintenance garage into a facility for paratransit operations and maintenance. The bus operations and maintenance work that had previously taken place in the existing bus facility are being moved to a new location in Springfield.

The Pioneer Valley Transit Authority is facing an operating deficit this year, and received an extra $2 million from the state to help cover its costs on top of its regular appropriation.

UMass Lowell will pay half-price

A pilot agreement negotiated between the MBTA and UMass Lowell will allow the school’s 20,000 students and employees to ride the commuter rail into Boston for free, with the university picking up half of the actual fare cost.

For UMass Lowell, the pilot will provide a way for students and employees to travel back and forth between Boston and Lowell at no cost to them and at a heavily discounted cost to the school. For the MBTA, the pilot is another attempt to fill seats when trains are traveling with relatively few riders.

“Not unlike the special weekend fare we’ve been piloting [$10 for unlimited travel on weekends], this is another effort to attract customers to trains with plenty of capacity,” T spokesman Joe Pesaturo said in an email. “In the case of the UMass Lowell pilot, the students will be traveling primarily on off-peak trains, which have many seats available. The fares and ridership will be reviewed as part of the pilot evaluation.”