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| NY Daily News: ALL current RTS buses to be retire around this May (333453) | |||
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NY Daily News: ALL current RTS buses to be retire around this May |
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Posted by gold_12th on Fri Mar 22 11:25:24 2019 The MTA plans to pull all of its 21-year-old, diesel-burning buses from service by May 10.The agency announced its plans to scrap the vehicles Thursday, less than a week after a Daily News analysis showed that Brooklyn’s poorest neighborhoods are stuck with the MTA’s oldest buses. The buses in question are the model RTS-06s, which spew hot diesel exhaust out the back and cause major health concerns for the communities they roll through. The MTA currently has 168 of them in service, and they’ll be replaced by a combination of brand new buses and hybrid models, according to MTA spokesman Max Young. The first of the Volvo-built bruisers to be scrapped this spring will come from the East New York bus depot, which houses buses for routes in two of the borough’s lowest-income neighborhoods, East New York and Brownsville. The depot currently holds 21 of the buses, all of which will be pulled by the end of March. The Flatbush depot, which also houses buses for routes that serve East New York and Brownsville, currently has 48 of the problematic vehicles. The MTA has vowed to scrap a dozen of those by the end of March, and all but three will be gone by the end of April. The other three depots that house the buses are Michael J. Quill depot in Midtown Manhattan, Jamaica depot in Queens, and Ulmer Park depot in Gravesend, Brooklyn. The number of RTS buses in service citywide will drop to 127 by the end of March, 37 by the end of April, and to zero by May 10, agency officials said. “We’re looking forward to modernizing our fleet in every part of the city,” said Darryl Irick, the MTA’s head of buses. "The significant infusion of funds that would come from congestion pricing, if lawmakers approve it, will allow us to do even more to bring the latest buses to every neighborhood.” Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams responded to The News’ findings earlier this week by calling for the City Council and state Legislature to investigate the issue. He said the inequitable distribution of old buses in Brooklyn showed how important it is to fully fund NYC Transit President Andy Byford’s “Fast Forward” plan to overhaul the city’s transit system. “This positive development doesn’t negate the need for a thorough review of how we arrived at this situation and I look forward to working with my colleagues in city and state government as well as the MTA to do so," said Adams. "As we roll out new infrastructure, it is important that we prioritize those communities with the highest need, including those with the highest asthma-related illnesses.” The buses that will replace the RTS models will still run on diesel in one form or another — the MTA has only a handful of fully-electric buses. Still, the newest diesel buses are more efficient than the ones manufactured in the 1990s, and come with amenities like WiFi and phone charging ports. Environmental justice advocates want the MTA to transition to an entirely electric bus fleet over the next 20 years, which will require major infrastructure upgrades at the agency’s 29 bus depots as well as the implementation of charging stations on city streets. “We applaud The News for uncovering this disparity and forcing the MTA’s hand,” said Eddie Bautista, executive director of NYC Environmental Justice Alliance. "What communities of color need now is a firm timetable for the full electrification of all NYC buses by 2040, so we’re no longer at the mercy of bureaucratic discretionary abuse.” https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/ny-mta-buses-brooklyn-rts-scrap-diesel-20190322-gnicunimtndgxiwnpjyrrzkxhy-story.html |
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