Court Order Against LAMTA Removes Choice of Buses or Light Rail (4/5/99)

BUS DEPARTMENT NEWS

Court Order Against LAMTA Removes Choice of Buses or Light Rail

A federal court order this month against the Los Angeles Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) is testing the limits of how far a court can go in controlling the operations of a transit agency.

A special master appointed by the federal court in Los Angeles ordered the MTA to buy 532 more compressed natural gas (CNG) buses to relieve overcrowding. The extra buses would be added to the 2,095 CNG buses the MTA already plans to add to its fleet by 2004.

The decision by Special Master Donald Bliss carries the same weight as a court order. Bliss was appointed to oversee implementation of a consent decree after several bus riders advocacy groups filed a lawsuit against the MTA. In the lawsuit, the Bus Riders Union said the MTA discriminated against poor and minority bus riders by spending too much of its budget on subway and light rail projects that primarily benefit the white suburban customers. Buses, however, carry 91 percent of the MTA's passengers.

The consent decree also requires the MTA to hire drivers, mechanics and supervisors to help ease chronic overcrowding, breakdowns and missed trips.

The special master's decision eliminates much of the MTA board of directors' discretion over mass transit priorities in the sprawling Los Angeles area. It also jeopardizes the budget for construction of a light rail line between downtown Union Station and Pasadena, part of which might need to be used to buy the buses.

MTA officials were upset by the special master's decision, calling it "excessive." They estimate that purchasing and operating the additional CNG buses will cost more that $400 million over the next five years. "Given all the demands on MTA for public transportation improvements, the MTA board must weigh whether or not this is a wise expenditure of public funds," the MTA said in a statement. "We have the option of appealing the special master's ruling, although no decision has been made on how to proceed until we have had an opportunity to carefully analyze the ruling and its impact."

Bliss said the MTA failed to comply with the consent decree's requirement to reduce the number of passengers forced to stand in buses during peak hours. No more that 15 riders are supposed to be forced to stand during any 20-minute period. By June 30, 2000, the number drops to no more than 11, and by June 30, 2002, the number of standees must be no more than nine.

Bliss's 62-page ruling said, "All the MTA's horses and all of the [Bus Riders Union's] men have not been able to put together an agreed-upon remedial plan, which was clearly the desired course under the consent decree. Consequently, the obligation to resolve these areas of conflict under the decree is now thrust upon the special master."