Local News in Brief : RTD Will Upgrade Buses
RTD officials said Thursday that the coming fiscal year will see the most extensive upgrading of the agency’s aging bus fleet since the huge purchase of buses before the 1984 Los Angeles Summer Olympic Games.
More than 25% of the often criticized, 2,400-bus fleet is expected to be replaced or undergo a major rehabilitation, said Alan Pegg, the Southern California Rapid Transit District’s acting general manager. The combination of the new and refurbished buses, which will require less maintenance, and use of more vandal- and graffiti-resistant materials inside and outside should result in better-looking buses by the middle of next summer, Pegg told reporters.
The comments came as Pegg presented the board a proposed $941-million spending package for 1988-89, which will be debated over the coming month. The bus system costs would be about $503 million. That is $7 million less than the current year’s adopted budget, due to belt-tightening measures and one-time accounting changes.
Expenditures on construction projects, largely the stepped-up work on the Metro Rail subway, will increase about 17% to $438 million.
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