The MTA board approved the purchase of 92 new clean diesel express buses to replace an aging fleet based at a Staten Island depot. The contract with Motor Coach Industries Inc. totals $120.8 million and includes manuals, diagnostic tools, testing, training, and spare parts. Each bus costs about $1.3 million and will replace vehicles that have reached a 12-year useful life. The buses will include a driver enclosure, a collision avoidance system with intelligent pedestrian turn warning, OMNY readers, and Automated Camera Enforcement cameras for bus-lane violations. The buses will use clean diesel fuel rather than electricity. The MTA’s capital plan targets full electrification by 2040, but earlier electric buses faced reliability problems from overheating and battery failures. The contract was approved without competitive bidding due to no other responses, with delivery scheduled between late 2028 and late 2029.
"An MTA panel on Wednesday approved the purchase of 92 new clean diesel express buses to replace an aging fleet operating out of a Staten Island depot. The MTA board approved the $120.8 million purchase from Motor Coach Industries Inc. (MCI) during its May 20 meeting. The cost will also cover manuals, diagnostic tools, testing, training, and spare parts, according to MTA documents. Each bus in the purchase costs roughly $1.3 million."
"The new vehicles will replace a fleet that has reached the end of its useful life of 12 years. They will be equipped with a suite of new features, according to the MTA. Those include a driver enclosure, collision avoidance system with intelligent pedestrian turn warning, OMNY readers, and Automated Camera Enforcement (ACE) cameras which the MTA and city use to ticket drivers occupying or parking in bus lanes."
"The buses will run on clean diesel fuel, rather than being electric, even though the MTA committed to making its entire 5,800 bus fleet fully electric by 2040 in its latest $68 billion capital plan. Under its plan, the MTA is supposed to swap out 500 diesel for electric buses between last year and this year. However, 60 electric buses the MTA put into service last year were found to have persistent reliability issues due to overheating and battery failures that prevented full charging."
"The MTA board approved the contract with MCI without going through competitive bidding, as no other companies responded to NYC Transit, according to MTA documents. The firm will deliver the new buses between late 2028 and late 2029."
Read at www.amny.com
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]