MTA Chief Calls for Purchase of New Buses

Acknowledging the crisis facing the nation’s second-largest bus system, Metropolitan Transportation Authority chief Julian Burke called Wednesday for the accelerated purchase of new buses to replace the agency’s old and crippled bus fleet.

Moving to prevent a federal court from ordering specific improvements to the bus system, Burke urged the MTA board to approve buying 2,095 new buses over the next six years, nearly 800 more than the agency had planned to purchase.

The program--which would cost $700 million to $750 million--would mark a major turning point for the MTA, which has invested $7 billion in construction of subway and light-rail lines.

The agency’s long-standing emphasis on rail construction has come at the expense of the bus system used by 91% of the MTA’s passengers, most of whom are poor and members of minority groups.

“This is great news for the bus riders in Los Angeles,” Burke said. Even if the agency had not settled a federal civil rights lawsuit by agreeing to a consent degree to improve bus service, Burke said, “we should do this because such a substantial part of the transit riders in this county are using buses. We have to get this thing to be reliable, comfortable and safe for them.”

One aspect of the plan--backing away from the MTA’s commitment to buy only buses powered by clean-burning fuels, such as natural gas--drew immediate criticism from air quality officials and environmentalists who oppose buying more diesel buses.

“It will not sit well with us,” said Chung S. Liu, assistant deputy executive officer at the South Coast Air Quality Management District. “It would be a very disappointing thing for AQMD and clean air in this basin.”

But Burke described his new plan as an aggressive yet manageable effort to deal with reliability problems, which lead to frequent breakdowns, chronic overcrowding and disruption of service on MTA bus lines.

Because the MTA board chose not to invest in replacing its bus fleet sooner, 42% of the agency’s buses exceed the federal guideline of 12 years old.

“As the fleet ages, the service suffers from ever-decreasing . . . reliability and quality, and ever-increasing operating and maintenance costs,” Burke wrote to board members.

Burke said the average age of the MTA fleet will be 6 years by 2000 if the agency’s directors follow his lead.

Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan, who heads the MTA board and recruited Burke for the top MTA post, said he supports the transit chief’s approach. “We finally have responsive and responsible management and a plan that will make MTA’s bus fleet more reliable for the transit-dependent public,” Riordan said in a statement.

Burke said he thought that the Bus Riders Union, a plaintiff in the federal lawsuit, “ought to be supportive of the fact that we are increasing substantially and aggressively” our plan to buy new buses.

The purchase of 782 additional buses will cost $250 million to $300 million more than MTA had planned to spend for new buses during the next six years.

The bus purchases would be most accelerated between 2000 and 2003. Burke proposes to buy 1,237 buses during those years compared to 534 buses in the MTA’s existing plan.

Burke expressed confidence that a massive highway transit bill passed this year by Congress will provide most of the funds for the bus purchase.

Eric Mann, a leader of the bus riders group, said Burke’s plan was a serious proposal and he would have no comment until it could be studied closely.

The Bus Riders Union has demanded that the MTA buy 1,600 natural gas-powered buses over the next two years to reduce overcrowding and improve bus service.

The group, along with the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, is pressing a special master appointed by U.S. District Judge Terry Hatter Jr. to order the MTA to buy new buses.

Burke said the demand for 1,600 buses is unrealistic because that many buses cannot be manufactured so quickly, nor could they be received and placed in service without substantial cost.

Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke, an MTA board member, said the chief executive’s plan to buy many more buses is a good idea. “We do need to upgrade our fleet,” she said. “I don’t think he has a lot of choice.”

The MTA admitted recently that overcrowding on most of its bus lines exceeded the limit set in the consent decree agreed upon by bus riders’ representatives and the MTA two years ago.

Burke, who is vice chair of the MTA, said the acquisition of more buses is going to be “very expensive” and “it probably reduces some of the rail options” for the future. “It may mean a delay in Pasadena,” she said.

Faced with mounting financial problems, the MTA board voted in January to halt work on a light-rail line to Pasadena and extensions of the subway to the Eastside and Mid-City areas.

A bill awaiting action on Gov. Pete Wilson’s desk would establish a new transit agency to oversee design and construction of the light-rail line to Pasadena.

The bus purchase proposal drew negative reaction from several officials concerned about diesel pollution.

The AQMD’s Liu said his agency has a strong policy of staying away from purchasing diesel engines for transit vehicles because the Los Angeles region still has the dirtiest air in the nation.

“Compressed natural gas has much lower emissions than so-called clean diesel,” he said.

The state Air Resources Board in July declared diesel particles a potent cancer causing compound and has begun developing a strategy to ensure that Californians are protected.

The MTA has the largest alternative fuel bus fleet in the country, but it is starting to lose ground to other cities that have vowed to switch their entire fleet to natural gas.

Burke is proposing that up to half of the buses purchased between now and fiscal year 2004-05 be diesel or other technology.

MTA officials argue that the new diesel buses would be far cleaner than the 18-year-old diesel buses they would replace and that will result in a net improvement in air quality.

Burke expressed concern about the MTA becoming too dependent on one type of bus, in this case, natural gas buses.

Severe engine problems forced the MTA to mothball most of the methanol-ethanol buses purchased in the early 1990s, adding to the transit agency’s reliability and overcrowding problems. Those buses are being converted to diesel engines.

This summer, the MTA bought 20 diesel buses from Las Vegas, the first since the clean fuels policy was adopted in 1992.

He also argued that the buying the diesel buses could save the MTA as much as $50 million because, he said, natural gas buses are more expensive to buy, maintain and operate.

Supervisor Mike Antonovich, who is a member of the MTA board of directors and the air quality management district, said of Burke’s recommendation: “In attempting to overturn existing board policy, the chief executive officer is breaking faith with the AQMD and going AWOL in the war against smog.”

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Changing Course at the MTA

Moving to improve bus service and head off intervention by a federalcourt, MTA chief Julian Burke is proposing a speed-up in plans to buynew buses for the transit agency’s fleet. The plan would mark a majorcommitment to the bus system, which has long been over shadowed by the MTA’s heavy investment in building rail lines.

Old plan: 1,313 new buses

New plan: 2,095 new buses

Increase: 782 new buses, or 59.5%

Price tag of old plan: $450 million

Price tag of new plan: $700 million to $750 million

Moving Away from Buses Powered by Clean-Burning Fuel

To save money and avoid dependence on one technology, the MTA would back away from its commitment to buy new buses powered only by clean-burning fuels like natural gas. Instead, up to half of the new buses could be diesel-powered. That idea drew immediate criticism from environmentalists and air quality officials.

Overcrowding Limits

Under a federal court order to improve bus service, the MTA must reduce the number of passengers forced to stand on board its buses during peak periods. The MTA failed to meet the first overcrowding limit on nearly all of its major bus lines. The deadlines and limits per bus per 20-minute period are:

Dec. 31, 1997 - 15 standees

June 30, 2000 - 11 standees

June 30, 2002 - 8 standees

MTA Bus and Rail Ridership

Average weekday boardings during August:

Rail System: 9%

Bus System: 91%

Note: A boarding is one passenger getting on a bus or train once. Around trip on one bus or rail line is counted as two boardings.

Source: Metropolitan Transportation Authority

Researched by JEFFREY L. RABIN / Los Angeles Times