NEW YORK CITY - The first step in the long-delayed public takeover of the private bus lines operating in New York City was scheduled to occur on the last day of 2004, when the city was to assume ownership of Liberty Bus Lines.
Under a deal announced last month by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Liberty Lines' President Jerry D'Amore, the city agreed to buy Liberty Lines for a total price of $15.2 million.
The purchased includes all of the property of Liberty Lines Express, including its maintenance center and bus depot, parking facilities, equipment, vehicles and other assets.
Liberty Lines operates more than 400 vehicles in metro New York and Westchester County, including seven express routes between the Bronx and Manhattan. The company, which has been around since 1953, has 700 union and 160 nonunion employees. It carries upwards of 32 million passengers annually.
The purchase is the first agreement between the city and the seven private New York City bus lines it seeks to take over.
Striking similar deals with the other six companies will be far harder, according to New York Councilman John Liu, chairman of the council's transportation committee and a frequent critic of the mayor's takeover policy.
"Liberty is the lowest-hanging fruit on the tree," Liu was quoted by New York media as saying. "Hopefully, they'll be able to reach the fruit on the higher branches as well."
Under a timetable approved by the City Council, the New York Metropolitan Transit Authority is to begin managing the seven companies on four separate dates beginning Jan. 15 and ending April 30.
The timetable calls for the MTA to take over Liberty Lines Express on Jan. 15, Queens Surface Corp. on Feb. 26, Green Bus Lines and New York Bus Service on March 26 and Command, Jamaica and Triboro Coach on April 30.
Four of the companies, Triboro, Jamaica, Command and Green Bus Lines, have banded together as the Transit Alliance to negotiate the terms of their takeover.
Key issues in the takeover negotiations are pensions for employees of the Transit Workers Union, which represents the bus companies' employees; dealing with non-union employees, and a long list of "intangibles." A spokesman for the Transit Alliance said the intangibles are the "costs that must be paid when the city puts a franchisee out of business."
Whether the city council deadlines will be met is problematic. Numerous past deadlines have not been met.
The seven private operators, which have contracted with the city for decades, provide daily computer service for 400,000 riders. In recent years, the city has had the companies on starvation rations and failed to replace their fleets. Many of the buses are upwards of 20 years old and operating in what is generally regarded as the toughest transit service in North America.