Passenger Bus, Rail and Motorcoach Industry News

The agency will resume senior transit operations after Heartland Senior Services discontinued its contract with the agency, in order to deal with budget deficits caused by substantially rising food and fuel costs.

The plan, which will be presented for approval to the board of directors of the MBTA, also includes $61 million in one-time revenues that must be approved by the state Legislature to help close the agency’s $159 million deficit.

Twelve staffers were let go. The agency is $30 million over its current budget and facing projected deficits of $53.2 million over the next two years.

Columbia Mayor Bob McDavid will appoint a student task force, which will focus on designing new cost-efficient, student-friendly routes for the transit system.

Totaling $710.44M, the budget includes a net transit operating budget of $389.64 million and a total capital budget of $320.8 million, with $132.8 million allocated for debt service.

Last week, members of the Amalgamated Transit Union, Local 268, rejected the terms of a recommended agreement by a fact-finder, appointed by the State Employee Relations Board, to settle a contract dispute with RTA.

Will implement service reductions next month as a result of lower than anticipated revenues due to the sluggish economy.

Proposal addresses a $383 million gap that had developed over the past two weeks due to several significant unfavorable developments, including a $143 million state budget cut.

Identified three areas that have contributed to the shortfall: declining public funding, union contracts and pension obligations.

The budget that was passed uses the total county contributions to maintain service. The mandated amounts include $1.567 million for operations and $2.6 million in tax contributions.