Passenger Bus, Rail and Motorcoach Industry News

The city added a line item in the capital budget showing it might spend $1.35 million in 2017 to buy a dozen paratransit vehicles. Officials hope that bringing the service in-house will reduce costs and ease customer service.

Program has generated almost $2.4 million in savings for five agencies with contract prices of $2.30 per gallon for diesel fuel and $2.11 for gas. The first two years of the hedging program generated $632,811 in savings the first year and more than $3.4 million in the second year.

This budget would support an increase in maintenance and direct funds to key service initiatives by amounts of $17.5 million in FY 2013 and $29.1 million in FY 2014. The fiscal year is July 1 to June 30.

Under the new method, companies hoping to do business with the MTA log into a website that allows them to place bids in real time and simultaneously track whether they are currently the low bidder, or have been underbid.

PARTA officials said the cost-saving idea sprung from a weekly meeting between the downtown redevelopment partners where KSU and city officials related that they needed dirt to raise the university’s Esplanade walkway extension.

While the move could eliminate many redundancies between the two police forces, yearly savings estimates were said to be between $1 million and $1.9 million in a $10 million budget.

In the reverse auction bid process, vendors submit all other requirements of the bid package except for the price. The price is finalized during the auction where vendors have allotted time to under bid each other in order to secure contracts.