In a unanimous decision that could end an often bitter decade-old dispute over crowded bus service in Los Angeles County, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority agreed Thursday to comply with a federal court order to add 145 buses by next year.
The MTA, which was accused in a lawsuit 10 years ago of favoring rail projects in wealthier areas over bus service in poorer ones, has repeatedly challenged the federal court's mandated improvements, saying that it could not afford them.
On Thursday, the board agreed to use $30 million it had intended for future bus purchases to buy the remaining 75 buses it needs to meet the federal court order.
"The best we can do is show good faith," said Frank Roberts, chairman of the MTA board and the mayor of Lancaster.
The Bus Riders Union, which has led the fight against the MTA, praised the decision not to challenge the court order. "It's very positive that you want to buy 75 more expansion buses," said spokesman Manuel Criollo.
Criollo and Los Angeles City Councilman Martin Ludlow, an MTA board member, questioned whether the plan to use funds set aside for future bus purchases would violate the 1996 consent decree that the MTA signed with the Bus Riders Union to improve bus service.
"We ask you [to] really look at other sources of funding," Criollo told the board. "You have other sources of funding."
Steven J. Carnevale, an assistant county counsel, said he believed the funding plan would not violate the court order, saying the agency is only "borrowing" future bus funds and intends to replace the money.
Another MTA board member, John Fasana, the mayor of Duarte, said he disagreed with the court's order.
"I don't think this is a value for the taxpayers," he said.
The board's 11-0 decision ends the latest skirmish in a 10-year battle between the MTA and the Bus Riders Union. In 1994, the group sued the agency, challenging a 25-cent fare increase and saying that the agency favored rail construction at the expense of bus service.
As the two sides were preparing for trial in 1996, they signed a 10-year consent decree in which the agency agreed to limit fares, reduce overcrowding and add new service to areas with concentrations of schools, hospitals and jobs. The two sides have been arguing about the improvement plans ever since.
Donald Bliss, a court-appointed special master, has twice specified the number of buses he wanted the MTA to buy. In 1999, he asked for 481 new buses, and the MTA said that it needed just 160.
