Bus Crowding May Result in ‘Fare Strike’

Frustrated by Metropolitan Transportation Authority delays in implementing a court order to reduce bus overcrowding, the Bus Riders Union threatened Wednesday to begin a “fare strike.”

Union organizers say overcrowding is still so deplorable that their 2,000 dues-paying members want more militant action. That will include calling on bus riders to refuse to pay the $1.35 fare if they can’t find a seat.

A large group of organizations representing immigrants, domestic workers, students and others who depend on the transit system made the announcement.

“We are fed up and sick and tired,” said Rosa Ayala, a janitor. “We need new buses or we are going to the street to battle.”

The union wants the MTA to purchase 1,600 new buses--1,000 to replace older buses and 600 to relieve overcrowding.

The MTA warned that passengers who refuse to pay fares could be fined.

“Asking people not to pay their fares is urging them to break the law,” said Ed Scannell, a spokesman for the MTA, calling the action “inappropriate.” He said fines are as much as $250.

Already, the union has signed up 400 bus riders angry enough to face arrest or a fine by refusing to pay bus fares, and it hopes to enlist the support of hundreds more. That is only a small fraction of the system’s estimated 350,000 to 400,000 daily passengers, but the riders union contends that it has enough support to disrupt the system.

“We are getting tired of not being able to get to work on time, not being able to get to school, not being able to function on weekends because of the dilapidated bus system that the MTA allows,” said Norma Henry, a bus riders union organizer.

Until now, the 5-year-old union has been content to battle the MTA in court or take isolated actions, such as blocking the intersection of Wilshire Boulevard and Vermont Avenue, or distributing posters of sardines in a can to depict what riders say it’s like to ride a typical MTA bus.

The union has won some notable victories. As part of the consent decree, the MTA agreed to reinstitute a $42 monthly bus pass and sell $11 weekly passes. The MTA also agreed to abandon plans to eliminate some night bus routes.

The tempest Wednesday centered on a provision of the court order requiring the MTA to meet a goal of having no more than 15 standing passengers on individual buses during any 20-minute period of any day.

The Bus Riders Union released figures showing that 30 high-volume MTA bus lines were in violation of the 15-standee ceiling between Jan. 1 and March 29.

Those figures were challenged by the MTA. “We believe that we have lived up to the consent decree,” Scannell said.

Another disagreement was over the need to go on a bus-purchasing binge. Scannell said the MTA was putting four to five new buses on lines each week, and purchasing 1,600 new buses over the next two years is “impossible.”

The MTA said that as of February, it had 664 buses that could be considered obsolete because they had more than 500,000 miles on them. The union put the number at 878.

Either way, putting roughly 160 new buses on the street a year won’t solve the problem, said Eric Mann, chief organizer for the Bus Riders Union. “Our members are saying, if they aren’t complying, why should we pay?” Mann said.