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September
22,
2005 |
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Metro
Board Authorizes Purchase of 200 New Buses The
Metro Board of Directors today authorized the purchase of 200 new buses,
all but six of them high-capacity vehicles, that will further modernize
the Metro bus fleet and improve service to thousands of bus riders on
Metro's busiest lines. The
new bus procurements include 94 articulated buses that are 60-feet long
called Metro Liners, which can seat 45 percent more passengers than a
standard 40-foot coach, and 100 buses 45-feet long that have 15 percent
more seating capacity. In addition, Metro is purchasing six hybrid
40-foot coaches that run on gasoline and electricity. The other new
buses will all run on compressed natural gas. The
bus procurements will cost more than $100 million though the final
purchase price will be determined once bids for the 45-foot coaches are
received. With
these procurements, Metro will far exceed recent orders by a special
master who oversees a federal Consent Decree for improving Metro Bus
service. In the past two years, Washington, D.C. lawyer Donald Bliss has
ordered Metro to buy buses with seating equivalent to 660 new 40-foot
buses (26,400 total passenger seats). Including recent procurements,
Metro is buying the equivalent of 730 standard buses (29,198 seats). "Many
of these larger buses already are in service," noted Metro CEO Roger
Snoble, who added that the Metro Liners will service the new Metro
Orange Line in the San Fernando Valley when it debuts Oct. 29. Altogether,
Metro has purchased more than 2,000 new buses since the Consent Decree
was signed nine years ago. Metro Bus service has expanded by more than
25 percent during peak hours and new service such as Metro Rapid has
been implemented along with a series of pilot lines that provide the
transit dependent greater access to jobs, schools and medical centers. The
Metro Board today also adjusted the budget to add a new pilot line,
Express Line 577 X, which will connect the El Monte Transit Center,
California State University, Long Beach and the Long Beach Veteran's
Affairs Medical Center via the carpool lane on the 605 Freeway. Lastly,
the Board adopted changes to Metro's Transit Service Policy to factor
in Consent Decree compliance and determine the net benefit to transit
dependent riders of proposed service changes. Metro-123 |