Lane Transit District has been awarded $3 million in funds for replacement buses and $750,000 in Alternatives Analysis funding.@@http://tinyurl.com/dyqqjhq@@
The funds come from Federal Transit Administration’s Fiscal Year 2011 Alternatives Analysis, Bus Livability, and State of Good Repair Programs. These grant funds will allow LTD to replace buses purchased in 1994 and 1997, which eliminates the last of the district’s high-floor buses and completes the conversion of the bus fleet to include air conditioning.@@http://www.registerguard.com/web/updates/27120793-55/buses-ltd-emx-springfield-transit.html.csp@@
“We have a little over 100 buses in our fleet from 1994 to 2011, and so we replace a portion of our fleet every couple of years to keep the average age of your fleet reasonable,” said Andy Vobora, LTD director of Service Planning, Accessibility and Marketing.@@http://www.ltd.org/search/showresult.html?versionthread=b0e53e3e622bb1552cd958dc923d719f@@ “We typically run ours 15 to 18 years. The three million dollars will be added to other grants we will hopefully get in the next year or so.”
Vobora said the current buses can be challenging for people with disabilities to ride, and that the new buses should be more user-friendly. The LTD Board of Directors@@http://www.ltd.org/search/showresult.html?versionthread=6b081b62580a7134ae42e987804a388e@@ said that all new buses purchased will be hybrid-electric.
Frequent rider Nora Guajardo, a senior at the University@@http://directory.uoregon.edu/telecom/directory.jsp?p=findpeople%2Ffind_results&m=student&d=person&b=name&s=Nora+Guajardo@@, has seen people with disabilities struggle getting on the bus.
“It’s not only holding the bus up, it’s having to have the bus driver get out and help the person maneuver, and it’s kind of embarrassing for the people who are in the wheelchairs,” she said. “So I think one of the biggest things LTD can do is to accommodate the disabled people more.”
Lane County Commissioner Pete Sorenson@@http://petesorenson.com/@@ is excited for the future of the LTD.
“I’m pretty pleased with LTD’s ability to work with our congressional delegation to get the support of the other local governments,” he said. “The good news is this kind of transit will continue and will probably get better. We’ve been one of the leading communities in the United States to receive these funds.”
LTD also received $750,000 to evaluate the expansion of EmX service along East Main Street and the McVay Highway in Springfield.@@http://www.registerguard.com/web/updates/27120793-55/buses-ltd-emx-springfield-transit.html.csp@@
Vobora was happy with the amount LTD received because there was only $25 million available nationwide.
“It is the first step in analyzing EmX service to other parts of the community. We’re working on the West Eugene project right now,” he said.
The EmX project to expand to West Eugene has been a source of debate for months between LTD officials and clients and the residents and businesses along West 11th Avenue.
“Going down West 11th it’s going to be extremely bad. It’s going to be a huge disturbance of traffic,” Guajardo said. She thinks the LTD would do a greater service to Eugene if they would add more bus lines in other areas instead.@@YES@@
Commissioner Sorenson made it clear he is in favor of an additional EmX line. He thinks another EmX line will help move people around more efficiently. Specifically, he said he would rather see more routes that run north to south, instead of an extension down West 11th, because he thinks those lines need to be more interconnected.
“I’m in favor of the mX system. I actually counseled LTD early on that I thought 11th wasn’t as good of a location, as efficient as route as the 6th and 7th corridors,” he said. “I’m pleased that they’re moving in that direction.”
Vobora said the process of building a new line can often take up to ten years, but this grant will help the LTD research if another line is feasible and needed by the community.