Mayor grounds Albuquerque Rapid Transit buses

Albuquerque’s mayor this week ordered the grounding of the city’s troubled rapid-transit buses until the vehicles are inspected and safety concerns are allayed.

Mayor Tim Keller told KOAT-TV the city uncovered problems during driver training:

Officials say bolts were falling off the doors and the buses’ back doors would open on their own while being driven. Plus, the buses’ air conditioning and the brakes were not functioning properly.

“The center and rear brakes had zero air pressure, yet the bus was able to move. This means the rear and center axle brakes were not working,” said Transit Director Bernie Toon.

There are 15 ART buses and so far, the city officials say at least five have had issues. To be safe the city plans to examine them all. Depending on what the mechanics find during their monthlong evaluation, Keller say the city has three backup plans for the failing project, which includes getting new buses.

The buses’ manufacturer, Chinese-owned Build Your Dreams, disputed the mayor’s concerns and said the vehicle were inspected by the Federal Transit Administration in 2014.

More from the Albuquerque Journal:

City officials have informed BYD that they have one year to “work through these challenges, to try and take a path of least resistance” in order to move forward, Keller said.

“I’m running out of patience with them,” he said of the company. […]

Keller said the city is actively looking at potential alternative bus options for the ART fleet should it become necessary, including acquiring buses from other cities or vendors, or even continuing with BYD if it were determined that the problems were limited to just a few buses.

“We’ll know that in the next month. We’re going to figure out which path we’re going to go on long-term for this project,” Keller said. “We’re not going to continue this back and forth with the bus company much longer.”

The electric buses also failed to run for 275 miles as once specified and can only go 177 miles. BYD is supposed to build more charging stations along the Albuquerque Rapid Transit corridor on Central Avenue (aka Route 66) but hasn’t yet done so.

The previous mayor, Richard Berry, shepherded the $135 million ART project on nine miles of Central Avenue through a divided city council, saying the bus transit system was needed to attract new millennial residents and more high-tech companies to Albuquerque.

Route 66 businesses saw steep declines in revenue during about 18 months of construction, and several lawsuits tried to stop the project.

The city’s inspector general in June criticized the city for using general-obligation bonds on the project, proceeding with ART without a federal grant agreement in place (it finally was announced in August), awarding contracts to untested companies, and appearances of bias.

The state’s auditor also is investigating the ART project.

(Screen-capture image of an Albuquerque Rapid Transit sign)

4 thoughts on “Mayor grounds Albuquerque Rapid Transit buses

  1. I’ve heard of grounding aeroplanes – but buses? The only time British buses get grounded is when they try driving over too high sleeping policemen. I’ll let you work that one out.

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