T to vote on plan to overhaul its buses
$27.5m proposal would refurbish 30 percent of fleet
The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority board is scheduled to vote tomorrow on a key piece of a plan to overhaul 30 percent of its bus fleet over the next three years and reduce the number of breakdowns.
"From the outside, it will look like a brand-new bus," said Richard J. Leary, chief of operations for the MBTA. The inside will not look entirely new, but will "look like the cleanest bus in the fleet," he said.
If approved, the T will spend $27.5 million on a contract with Midwest Bus Corp. to rebuild engines, deal with rust, repair cracks, fix air conditioners, and otherwise refurbish 123 compressed natural gas buses purchased in 2003 and 2004 from North American Bus Industries.
The T will overhaul another 176 buses bought in the same period using in-house mechanics.
Though subway and train cars grab more attention, buses are essential for a large portion of riders - accounting for about 400,000 of the 1.35 million passenger trips taken each weekday. Breakdowns that disrupt the schedule can mess up commuters' days.
The agency has replaced almost all of its 1,050-bus fleet in the past five years, including an order of 155 buses this year that is in the final stages of delivery. The average age of the T's bus fleet is now 5.2 years old.
Paul Regan, executive director of the MBTA advisory board, said the ability to keep the new fleet in good working order will be tested in the next few years as the first of the newer buses come off warranty.
The T has been struggling under a multibillion-dollar debt that has required the agency to borrow money and deplete its reserves to pay operating expenses, a problem that has also meant leaner maintenance budgets.
The T is seeking federal funding to pay 80 percent of the overhaul costs.
"This is the interesting time," Regan said. "Can they keep those buses at the same level of service readiness as when they were under warranty?"
Regan said he sees the overhaul as an important sign that the agency is planning ahead.
The MBTA will retire most of its remaining older buses beginning in 2012, when it begins a six-year plan to buy 80 new buses a year.
The Federal Transit Administration recommends overhauling buses midway through their 12-year life-span.
Leary said the natural gas buses will be five to seven years old and will have logged about 200,000 miles by the time they are pulled from service for the overhaul, beginning in March. The radiators on many of the buses have been failing. The buses are also developing structural cracks.
"These vehicles are running on city streets during the winter in snow and salt," Leary said. "They've been banged up a little bit."
The goal is to keep them running with fewer breakdowns until they are retired sometime in the next decade.
The buses serve dozens of routes in Roxbury, Dorchester, Jamaica Plain, West Roxbury, Hyde Park, Brighton, Watertown, Dedham, Norwood, Brookline, Walpole, Newton, and Wellesley. Leary said the T will stagger the schedule, overhauling a few buses at a time, so there will be enough backup buses to prevent service interruptions.
The T is looking to buy five pilot hybrid buses in 2012. Leary said agencies around the country are testing them, but managers are not sure what technology will be used when new federal clean air requirements take effect in 2010.
Noah Bierman can be reached at nbierman@globe.com. 