Agency poised to order 30 buses

An increase in riders is wearing down Yuba-Sutter Transit's bus fleet — and pushing the transportation agency to order as many as 30 buses in the next three years to keep up.

Yuba-Sutter Transit is poised to acquire 10 new buses this fall for its Dial-A-Ride service, transit manager Keith Martin said Monday.

A vote to buy the vehicles — which the transit agency's board of directors will make on Thursday — also would give Yuba-Sutter Transit the option to buy up to 20 more buses through 2012, depending on ridership.

If approved, the 16-seat vehicles would join the local bus fleet as early as October at a cost of about $80,000 each. In addition to Dial-A-Ride routes, they would traverse rural scheduled routes and occasionally the main routes between Yuba City and Marysville.

A decade of low-speed and sometimes bumpy service has taken its toll on the existing Dial-A-Ride vehicles, which will be retired as their replacements hit Mid-Valley streets.

"The old buses had been rated for seven years and 200,000 miles," said Martin. "We're pushing it in years, and they've been well-used" — to the tune of nearly 300,000 miles each.

Tighter air-quality restri tions also will force the overhaul of Yuba-Sutter Transit's 44-bus fleet. Rules take effect in 2011 that will lower the allowed levels of soot and nitrogen oxide in commercial truck and bus emissions, which Martin said will force the replacement of five more buses.

Mid-Valley passengers have boarded the buses in growing numbers, according to the transit agency, which estimates it will carry 1.05 million passengers in the fiscal year ending June 30 — up more than 100,000 from a year earlier.

Contact Appeal reporter Howard Yune at 749-4708 or hyune@appealdemocrat.com