New Buses Coming for Disabled

Transit officials today are expected to approve funding to replace 78 aging minibuses used primarily for the disabled.

The special vehicles, which follow fixed routes across Orange County, are also used to take passengers from Metrolink train stations to parking areas and other locations. Their most extensive use, however, is by those with disabilities, said George Urch, a spokesman for the Orange County Transit Authority.

“For some people who are severely disabled, it’s very difficult for them to get down to a bus stop,” Urch said.

Those people can get on an OCTA list and have drivers pick them up and drop them off when they need rides.

OCTA will link with the state Department of General Services to buy the buses, thus saving money, Urch said. The county’s share of the purchase order for the Aerotech vehicles is just over $6 million.

All of the minibuses will be equipped with rear lifts, and 60 will have four wheelchair spaces. The rest will have seven wheelchair spaces.

The buses now in use, purchased in 1997, will exceed their prescribed federal 150,000-mile life span during 2002, Urch said. The cost-effective strategy is to replace them before they have major service problems, he said.

Urch could not say when the buses will be delivered to the county but noted that, when they are, most of the old ones will be donated to cities in the county for transporting senior citizens.