Passenger Bus, Rail and Motorcoach Industry News

Projects designed to modernize Brazilian cities for the 2014 soccer event, which included new metro lines, monorails and dedicated bus lines, are being scaled back, delayed or cancelled due to legal challenges, corruption and a lack of planning.

Executive Director Jim Weinstein said that the agency had to send four staff members to the Super Bowl in New Orleans to observe the city’s handling of transportation and security at the event so it could prepare for the game coming to the Meadowlands in 2014.

Since Monday, attendees and other passengers boosted ridership on LYNX by 148% over a typical weekday. About 250 buses will be used to move nearly 6,000 delegates to DNC events. In Tampa, 400 buses were used to transport 2,200 RNC delegates, but several buses were late for state delegations.

FTA granted the transit system a waiver so it could provide “limited charter service” during the Democratic National Convention. Decision comes after the ABA asked regulators not to grant the waiver to CATS to use its buses to transport people with disabilities and other accessibility issues.

Crews are installing floors, paths, customer service centers, air conditioned tents, picnic tables and restrooms. The agency is shutting down the regular transit center because of security concerns. It will run all bus routes, but will detour around DNC-related street closures.

Offering the Meadowlands online ticketing option as a pilot program to test the functionality of the web ticketing application and evaluate the feasibility of expanding it to include other services. The first phase of the pilot will be in place for the upcoming football season, as well as for other stadium events.