(C) Verite News New Orleans This story was originally published by Verite News New Orleans and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . New city buses expected to hit the road by September [1] ['Bobbi-Jeanne Misick', 'More Bobbi-Jeanne Misick', 'Verite News', '.Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus-Coauthors.Is-Layout-Flow', 'Class', 'Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus', 'Display Inline', '.Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus-Avatar', 'Where Img', 'Height Auto Max-Width'] Date: 2024-06-13 The first of 21 new city buses should begin rolling into New Orleans as early as next week, New Orleans Regional Transit Authority executives told board members on Thursday (June 13). RTA executives said they expect the 21 vehicles that the agency ordered from bus manufacturing company New Flyer last year to be on the road by September. That tracks with previous agency communications estimating that the buses would be in service by late 2024. The RTA was able to reduce the time it will take to get buses on the road by having the manufacturer install some needed bus features on the assembly line, instead of doing that work in house, Chief Asset Management Officer Ryan Moser told RTA board members. “In the past we’d get the buses and it would take a while because there was a bunch [of features] that we’d have to install on site,” said Commissioner Fred Neal, who chairs the operations and administration committee. “Having that all done at the manufacturer is a lesson learned.” Still, the new buses must be inspected to ensure they’re road-ready. Some systems, like radios and GPS location tracking, will still need to be installed after the buses arrive. Chief Transit Officer Justin Cayless called the arrival of the new buses “a breath of fresh air.” RTA’s bus fleet has been plagued by frequent breakdowns of aging vehicles that have forced the RTA to take buses offline, frustrating riders left to wait at stops for extended periods of time. “When we have breakdowns during the day and so on and so forth we can’t deliver what we promised,” Cayless said. “And so what we’re really focused on is ensuring that we can actually deliver the service that we’re saying we’re going to deliver.” In a presentation to board members Cayless said the new buses will allow the RTA to increase the number of buses available for service during peak hours from the current 74 to 76 in September. The agency will then take eight of the 29 buses that are past their lifespan off the road. Instead of using the new buses to expand the current fleet, the RTA will use most of the new buses to sub in for older ones when they break down. The agency plans to add twelve more buses to the number of vehicles running during peak service by January 2025, for a total of 86 buses available during peak hours. Another order of eight buses is expected to arrive in early 2025. Cayless said the agency is aiming to have 100 buses available for peak service in fiscal year 2026. Civil rights analysis; new signage Transit executives expect the new buses to help bolster service after the RTA implemented service cuts in January that resulted in longer wait times for half of the 30 bus lines serving New Orleans. RTA officials had emphasized that those cuts were temporary, given the agency’s aging fleet, and were made to improve reliability. Still, the changes triggered an analysis to ensure the newly extended wait times did not disproportionately burden minority and low-income residents in violation of the federal Civil Rights Act. On Thursday, RTA Chief Planning and Capital Projects Officer Dwight Norton provided a brief overview of the agency’s findings, which were released in a report in February ahead of an RTA board meeting. The report showed that 72% of the city’s minority residents and just under 25% of its low-income residents were impacted by the changes. Both categories are slightly overrepresented — the RTA’s service area is about 69% non-white and 24% low-income. The full board has yet to review the analysis, as it was sent to committee during a full board meeting after which four commissioners abruptly resigned following an internal investigation into payments made without board approval to RTA contractor BRC Construction Group. The resignation left the board without a legally required quorum to conduct business. The RTA also expects to move forward on printing new signs for the city’s 2,000-plus bus stops, most of which have been missing since the RTA implemented a system redesign in 2022. In the Thursday committee meeting, Moser said the agency has selected a vendor for the project, and sign-printing could begin in the next few weeks. Moser could not confirm to Verite News whether a contract with the vendor has been finalized yet. Once the agency sends sign designs to the new contractor, it’ll take another 40 to 50 days to receive the first set of signs, which will be made of semi-permanent vinyl stickers. Road crew staff will then apply those stickers over existing metal signage. A second phase of permanent metal signs for each bus stop will follow. RTA executives said in previous interviews with Verite News that delays in getting new signs stemmed from issues with a since-canceled printing contract with a company that was unable to manage the customization of each bus sign that the agency required. Related Republish This Story Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license. 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