MTA Planning to Increase Its Bus Fleet

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority plans to buy more than 300 special new buses in the next few years to help alleviate crowding on busy routes throughout Los Angeles County, authorities said Thursday.

Many of the buses, expected to have more seats than standard MTA buses, will be used on local routes as well as faster Metro Rapid lines, said John Catoe, MTA’s deputy chief executive.

Catoe said some buses will be used for the planned east-west busway across the San Fernando Valley, which is to open in 2005.

Officials said the MTA has a current fleet of about 2,400 buses with 40 to 43 seats each. Of the new vehicles, 272 will be extra long “articulated buses” with midsections that resemble accordions and each with 60 seats, officials said. By the end of the year, Catoe said, the MTA will add 30 new buses, each with 47 passenger seats.

Activists who support better conditions for bus riders said they will reserve judgment on the MTA plan until they learn how much the new vehicles will increase the agency’s overall passenger capacity.

“This is all good, but we believe most of these are replacement buses,” said Eric Mann, the former chairman of the Bus Riders Union and now a member of the organization’s planning committee.

According to the MTA, some of the new buses will replace older vehicles. Agency officials could not provide an estimate Thursday on the net gain in passenger seats. Officials declined to estimate the cost of buying the buses, saying that they have not yet solicited bids for the articulated buses.

The announcement on new buses came as MTA officials reiterated that they believe the agency is in full compliance with a court order requiring a reduction in bus crowding.

Currently, 98% of all MTA bus trips fall within the standard set by a consent decree, which mandates that no more than 20% of MTA passengers--or eight people on a typical bus--be forced to stand at any given time, Catoe said.

“We will not be able, 100% of the time, to abide by the [standard],” Catoe said, saying MTA employees who draw up bus schedules cannot plan for everything. Unexpected events, such as sudden traffic slowdowns, could cause ridership to spike without warning and force more riders to stand, Catoe said.

The MTA will present its position in a quarterly report to a court-appointed special master, who will determine whether the agency is complying with the consent decree. Bus rider advocates said they don’t believe the MTA’s figures or that the agency is complying with the court order.

“The bus riders on the street aren’t feeling any relief,” said Erica Teasley, western region counsel for the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People’s Legal Defense and Education Fund, which filed a civil rights lawsuit against the MTA in 1994 on behalf of the Bus Riders Union and other groups. That lawsuit resulted in the 1996 consent decree, which the MTA has unsuccessfully appealed several times.

MTA officials said they are pursuing a variety of strategies, such as rail and more Metro Rapid buses, to better serve riders.