Court Orders MTA to Buy New Buses

In a major defeat for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, a federal appeals court on Friday ordered the transit agency to buy hundreds of new buses to relieve overcrowding throughout Los Angeles County.

The long-awaited decision, which took 16 months for the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals to hand down, rejects the MTA’s appeal of a court order issued more than two years ago by the chief U.S. District Court judge in Los Angeles calling for the agency to buy 248 additional buses.

In a strongly worded 2-1 ruling, the appeals court found that the MTA has failed to comply with a landmark October 1996 consent decree intended to limit the number of passengers who are forced to stand while riding on the agency’s buses.

Appeals Court Judge Barry G. Silverman, writing for the majority, found the MTA’s arguments against compliance with the district court’s order “quite disingenuous.”

Silverman said the district court did not abuse its discretion in ordering the transit agency to immediately purchase the additional buses and to comply with the consent decree’s targets for reducing overcrowding.

But appeals court Judge Cynthia Holcomb Hall dissented, saying U.S. District Judge Terry J. Hatter Jr. “failed to appreciate the unnecessarily intrusive nature” of the remedy he ordered to reduce overcrowding on MTA bus lines.

Silverman and Judge James R. Browning noted that the consent decree requires the MTA to reallocate resources from other programs to reduce overcrowding on the bus system, which is used primarily by poor and minority riders.

The far-reaching decision could force the MTA to make major new investments in the bus system. And that could slow the agency’s plans to build some new light-rail lines.

Richard Larson, attorney for the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund and the Bus Riders Union, hailed the decision as a total victory. Larson said the ruling means that “the MTA is not above the law.”

Julian Burke, chief executive officer of the MTA, expressed disappointment at the ruling and said he will call a meeting of the agency’s board members as soon as possible to review the decision and its implications for the future.

Burke said the MTA’s bus service is continuing to improve with the arrival of new equipment to replace aging buses. He said the bus system is far more reliable and comfortable today than it was when the legal issues arose.

A key question facing the MTA board is whether to appeal the latest decision.

Los Angeles Mayor James K. Hahn issued a statement urging his colleagues on the MTA board to end their legal appeals.

‘The people of Los Angeles deserve quality, reliable bus service,” Hahn said. “As a member of the MTA board, I will continue to urge my colleagues to end the legal process and start working to meet our goal of improving and increasing bus service.”

Led by former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan, the MTA waged a long and aggressive attack on the consent decree even though the transit agency’s board voluntarily signed the agreement in 1996 to avoid a trial on a federal civil rights lawsuit brought by bus rider advocates.

The MTA board brought in a retired appeals court Judge Shirley M. Hufstedler in an effort to convince the appeals court panel that Judge Hatter had gone too far in ordering the purchase of additional buses.

MTA officials argued that the agency did not have the money to operate the additional buses. They suggested that the court did not have the authority to order the purchase of new buses. And they insisted the principles of federalism precluded the court from interfering in the operation of the transit agency.

But Larson said the agency now must comply.

“I think the game is over for the MTA,” he said. “They took one last shot by using a former 9th Circuit judge to argue and it did not work.”

Larson said the agency not only must buy more buses to reduce overcrowding, but it also must expand bus service to improve access to schools, jobs and medical care for transit-dependent residents of Los Angeles County.

Dispute Grew From 1994 Rights Case

The civil rights attorney said the MTA is “wildly in violation” of the latest load factor standard and cannot possibly meet a more stringent standard that takes effect next summer.

The consent decree required that by the end of 1997, no more than an average of 15 passengers be standing on an MTA bus during any 20-minute peak period. The maximum number of standees dropped to 11 by June 2000. The load factor target will shrink to nine passengers next July.

However, Burke said he still believes the MTA is in substantial compliance with the consent decree.

The legal wrangling has its roots in a civil rights case filed by the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund and the Bus Riders Union in 1994 after the MTA sought to raise fares and eliminate monthly passes. Their lawsuit alleged that the transit agency was discriminating against its poor and minority bus riders by neglecting the bus system and pouring money into costly rail projects.

Hatter has presided over the case since it was filed. He blocked the fare increase from taking effect and the MTA later agreed to reinstate the popular monthly passes.

Rather than risk a trial on the civil rights issues, the MTA board signed the consent decree. In the years since, the agency has resisted efforts by court-appointed special master Donald T. Bliss to require far more extensive improvements and expansion of the bus system.