NEW ORLEANS — After more than 15 years, the wheels on the bus were not going round and round. New Orleans RTA says it's time for a change after many of their buses outlived their life expectancy.
"The lifespan of a vehicle by the FTA is about 12 years, Lona Edwards Hankins, CEO of New Orleans RTA said. "So we had a large percentage of our fleet that was at the end of its useful life so the price to maintain was impacting not only our financial bottom line but our rider performance and whether or not we could deliver service on time reliably".
According to Hankins, many of the buses on the road right now were bought right after Hurricane Katrina, and it's been difficult to keep them moving. She says for some, the manufacturer went out of business so it's a struggle getting parts to upkeep maintenance.
They're hoping many of those issues will be resolved now that they're introducing a new fleet of 29 buses.
"First and foremost it'll allow us to improve reliability," Hankins said. "We’ll have enough vehicles to pull out and make service at the appropriate time so the only thing that will interfere with us making service will most likely be things like traffic, and road construction but we’ve removed the obstacle of our fleet maintenance challenge," she said.
Not only are they going to be on time, but some will also be quieter. According to RTA, some of the new buses are hybrid electric, which will produce less emissions.
"The ugly black smoke that folks often see coming out of our busses will be removed hopefully or reduced substantially," Hankins said. "We know our city has a large asthma rate, particularly in school-aged children so the more emissions we can [reduce] the better hopefully their attendance rate at school."
The RTA says the new diesel buses cost about $650,000 each and the hybrid buses cost $950,000 each.
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