Coinciding with a series of multimodal mobility improvements within New York State’s Lower Hudson Valley, STV, a leading transportation engineering firm, is providing a range of procurement support services for new bus vehicles in Westchester and Rockland Counties.

In Westchester, STV was contracted by the Westchester County Department of Public Works and Transportation to develop specifications for the procurement of hybrid-electric articulated buses that will serve a number of different routes throughout the county. These buses will serve approximately two-thirds of the passengers who use the county’s Bee Line bus system, which carries about 100,000 daily weekday riders and is the second largest bus system in New York State.

Similarly, STV was tasked by the County of Rockland Department of Public Transportation to provide technical support for its Transport of Rockland (TOR) bus procurements, including the development of a transit bus procurement strategy that determines the size and quantity of buses that will best serve the county’s needs. In both instances, STV developed the bus procurement technical specifications and assisted in the bus procurement process.

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“Westchester and Rockland Counties have continued to recognize the need to improve transit services throughout the Lower Hudson Valley,” said Paul Kaufmann, STV’s sr. engineering operations manager. “Our versatile bus vehicles engineering team supported these two clients from a number of different angles and assisted them in getting new buses procured for a number of transportation improvements that are being developed throughout the region.”

As part of the technical specification development in Westchester, STV coordinated demonstrations by different articulated bus manufacturers, as well as field testing to evaluate how each vehicle type would be able to combat the county’s notably steep hills. STV then compiled these observations and others to support the client during the procurement process.

For the County of Rockland, STV reviewed the agency’s TOR bus system, including current routes, topography, infrastructure, schedules, ridership data, vehicle fuel efficiency data, bus maintenance data, and types and sizes of vehicles in the fleet. STV also reviewed current bus and van manufacturers and conducted a marketplace analysis to determine the types, sizes, and quantity of vehicles that are most advantageous to the county’s local transit operations.

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The new buses are anticipated to go into revenue service in 2018 for both Westchester and Rockland counties.