NEW YORK CITY - The seven besieged private bus companies that provide daily commuter service throughout New York City are getting 450 new buses after a sudden policy reversal by the administration of Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
The dramatic shift was disclosed last month by Transportation Commissioner Iris Weinshall during a budget hearing before the City Council Transportation Committee.
Bloomberg had insisted for months the city would hold off on buying new buses until an agreement was reached on a takeover of the private lines by the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority.
"If we buy buses before the negotiations are complete, we run the risk of buying obsolete buses the MTA does not use and cannot service," the mayor said at the time.
The seven private companies, which serve 400,000 passengers daily in Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx, operate with the help of a $150 million annual subsidy from the city. That operating agreement, which was extended at the end of last year, expires July 1.
The city and the MTA have been conducting extended, and often-times acrimonious, negotiations regarding the proposed takeover. Based on testimony given by representatives of the two sides at last month's transportation committee hearing, an agreement seems nowhere in sight.
Weinshall said the new buses, which will cost about $350,000 each, or a total of more than $156 million, will have the same specifications used by the MTA. That would mean that if the MTA does eventually take over from the private lines the new buses "can easily go into the fleet of the MTA," she said.
The seven private carriers operate 1,251 buses, many of them 18 to 20 years old and in terrible disrepair. The operators have complained for years about both the size of the city subsidy and the absence of money to maintain the buses they operator for the city.
The normal procurement process for new buses in New York can take months - sometimes years. But procurement officials plan to ask transit bus builders to let the city "cut in front of the line a bit" and get the buses more quickly, Weinshall said.
"The plain truth is that these buses should have been ordered two years ago," said John Liu, a member of the City Council and chairman of the transportation committee. "Since then, service has gone down the tubes and hundreds of buses are out of commission."
Still, Liu said Weinshall's bus-purchase announcement is good news. He pressed the city and MTA to "get serious" with their takeover negotiations.
Weinshall assured Liu that the Bloomberg Administration would not turn its back on bus riders or cut off its subsidy to the private operators if the takeover doesn't happen by July 1.
Bloomberg's preliminary budget plan envisioned saving $150 million a year from the MTA takeover. But the MTA wants the city subsidy to continue and possibly increase.
Weinshall also announced the city is negotiating to buy 25 older buses the MTA is retiring. Compared to the buses used by the private lines, the MTA buses, despite being 15 to 16 years old, are in "mint" condition, Weinshall said. They will cost $7,000 each and could be on the road in a few months.