The Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) board approved the purchase of new, longer-lasting and more environmentally friendly bus interior lighting as part of the CTA’s major bus purchase and overhaul plan announced last year. The bus initiative will provide CTA customers with an almost entirely new bus fleet within the next few years.

The board awarded a $1.7 million lighting contract to Specialty Manufacturing Inc. following a competitive, low-bid process. The new LED lighting will replace existing fluorescent and LED interior lights in the more than 1,000 buses that are being overhauled. The new LED lights are more reliable, safer for the environment, will remain brighter longer and are less expensive.

The CTA bus modernization program includes an overhaul of 1,030 buses currently in CTA’s fleet that are at the “mid-life” stage to make them like new, in addition to the purchase of as many as 550 new buses, all of which will provide a modern, reliable and comfortable bus fleet to CTA customers.

Late last year, the CTA awarded contracts to Cummins NPower LLC and New Flyer Industries with a combined value of $185 million to perform bus overhauls, which will include rebuilding engines, transmissions, suspensions, heating and air-conditioning systems, exterior repair and repainting. The lighting work would be performed as part of the overhauls, which have begun in recent weeks and are expected to continue through spring 2015.