A Capital Area Transit System committee is recommending that the CATS board approve the purchase of eight additional new buses at an estimated cost of $450,000 each. The new buses would be delivered during the fourth quarter of 2016.
Earlier this year, the board approved the purchase of four new buses, which will be delivered during the first half of next year.
The purchases will not expand the CATS fleet because the new buses, when delivered, will replace aging ones. But they will represent a badly needed upgrade to the fleet, which has been criticized by some bus operators as being outdated and potentially unsafe.
“This at least addresses some issues because you are taking aged buses off the road and replacing them with a new, dependable, shiny fleet,” says CATS spokeswoman Amie McNaylor.
The CATS Finance and Executive Committee today recommended approval of the purchase. The full board will take up the matter at its monthly meeting next week.
In other business, the F&E committee today recommended awarding a new public relations contract to Covalent Logic for $50,000 annually.
The committee also got an update on the status of contract negotiations between the system’s employee union and the administration. Those talks got off to a rocky start early this summer, but in July the two sides had what they both described as a productive meeting. They have not met since then but will reconvene for talks in late September.
The full CATS board meeting on Tuesday begins at 4 p.m. at BREC headquarters, 6201 Florida Blvd.
—Stephanie Riegel
