A Promising MTA Plan

MTA boss Julian Burke’s new bus-buying proposal would take the agency much farther down the road toward its federal court-mandated goal of improving mass transit service to the poor. It stands as a step in the right direction. But even so, serious questions remain. It’s clear that a solution will have to involve more than the court, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and its transit-dependent riders.

Burke has proposed the purchase of 2,095 buses over six years at a cost of between $700 million and $750 million. This would ratchet up MTA bus expansion by some 800 vehicles, a huge improvement but one that still falls considerably short of the bus rider union’s unrealistic demand for 1,600 new natural-gas-powered buses in just two years.

The MTA got into this mess by pouring most of its money into inordinately expensive and lightly used rail systems while the nation’s most overcrowded bus system steadily deteriorated. The bus riders sued, forcing the MTA into a settlement that resulted in supposedly strict limits on overcrowding. The first deadline passed without satisfaction at the end of 1997.

Here are the sticking points. First, Burke’s proposal suggests that as many as half of the new buses would be diesel-powered. This flies in the face of a national trend that finds most transit agencies looking to drastically reduce or eliminate diesel. In addition, it has raised concerns within the South Coast Air Quality Management District. “It will not sit well with us,” said Chung S. Liu, the district’s assistant deputy executive officer.

The MTA and the bus riders will have to meet with AQMD officials on the matter. The bus riders too are unhappy with diesel.

It’s also true that the MTA maintenance record on its alternative-fuel buses is appalling and must be improved significantly. Some buses in the MTA’s fleet are being converted to diesel just to get them back on the road, and the agency might be forced to speed up its purchases of buses that run on compressed natural gas.

There are other complicating factors as well, including the move to create a separate rail construction authority for the oft-delayed Pasadena Blue Line, intended to connect with downtown.

Still, Burke’s proposal deserves strong consideration by the MTA board, the bus riders union and the AQMD. The folks who squeeze onto the MTA’s old buses every day have waited long enough.