Home Asides US DOT doles out dollars for NYC buses

US DOT doles out dollars for NYC buses

by Benjamin Kabak

The U.S. Department of Transportation released nearly $1 billion in funds for localities to spend on various livable streets and bus facility upgrades this week, and New York City and the MTA secured over $134 million of that total for a variety of badly-needed projects. “These grant funds will make sure that bus service in our communities remains reliable and desirable while putting thousands of Americans to work at the same time,” Federal Transit Administrator Peter Rogoff said.

According to the grant list (available here as a PDF), the MTA will spend on the money on vehicle replacement and a bus command system while the NYC Department of Transportation will invest $3.4 million into a plan to improve bus access in and around the Broadway Junction area. The new command system, which will receive $34 million in federal funding, has been to designed to address communications failures that arose during last winters crippling blizzard.

Meanwhile, as the MTA’s bus fleet ages and buses break down more often, the authority will use over $60 million in federal funds to purchase 112 new vehicles. “This is welcome new funding and is a much needed investment that will go a long way toward updating our equipment and bus fleet,” authority spokesman Kevin Ortiz said to the Daily News. “It will help improve service and reliability for our customers.”

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7 comments

SEAN October 18, 2011 - 4:50 pm

Any money going towards Clever Devices AV equipment?

I wonder wich bus builders will be getting overbloded contracts. Nova, Orion, NOBI, Gillig or Newflyer.

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Alex C October 18, 2011 - 5:08 pm Reply
pete October 18, 2011 - 7:00 pm

Wasting money. RTSes are fine.

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Jason B. October 18, 2011 - 8:11 pm

I’m wondering if money is in place to do signal prioritization yet on the M15 or Bx12.

Side note, I work in the Bronx and suddenly all of the buses are popping up on Secure WiFi as MTAXXXX where XXXX is the bus number. I wonder if this is in relation to BusTime preparations. Though WiFi is an odd interface, especially since the bus is what is broadcasting as a router.

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Alon Levy October 18, 2011 - 8:44 pm

Little enough that tiny cities with only local buses have signal priority.

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Al D October 19, 2011 - 9:30 am

At least somebody is helping instead of stealing MTA $. (see Albany)

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SpendmoreWastemore October 21, 2011 - 12:35 am

Zero it out. The new buses will be wretched, spine-jarring rattletraps immediately.
Redesign with longer suspension travel, floor 6″ higher, and standard automotive tech to isolate crashing over bumps.

Meanwhile cut all local bus in Manhattan, the subway covers it. Heck, chop 1/2 the lines outside MH as well…you’re better off on skatebord than a bus

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