BUS RIDERS WANT MTA DECREE EXTENDED.

Byline: Lisa Mascaro Staff Writer

Bus-riders advocates filed documents Monday seeking a six-year extension of a federal consent decree forcing the MTA to improve passenger service - a court order already costing taxpayers $100 million annually.

With two years remaining on the 10-year consent decree, plaintiffs say the Metropolitan Transportation Authority has failed to sufficiently improve service for its poor and minority riders.

``The system is not viable enough for those who use it, those who want to use it,'' said Cynthia Rojas, an organizer with the Bus Riders Union, whose parent organization is among the plaintiffs. ``It'll be enough when transit-dependent people can actually have transit mobility in this city.

``Right now, it's not enough.''

But the MTA said it already is devoting nearly half of its $2.8 billion budget to the bus system, and anticipates spending $1 billion on equipment and enhanced service by the time the consent decree expires in 2006. Extending the court order would come at the expense of roads, highways and other transportation projects throughout the region.

``There's no telling if it's extended what it would be,'' agency spokesman Marc Littman said. ``The same taxpayers that are stuck in gridlock on the streets and highways are going to be caught holding the bag.''

The 13-member MTA board will have to meet and determine whether it will oppose the proposed extension. The special master appointed by the U.S. District Court to oversee compliance with the consent decree will determine the next step.

The two sides have bitterly disputed nearly every provision of the consent decree, which resulted from a 1994 suit claiming that overcrowded buses violated the civil rights of the system's half-million passengers.

The MTA is already appealing the latest order from the special master to add 145 new buses and 380 replacement buses, saying it can reach the court's goal of improving service without spending $100 million on the new vehicles.

The MTA lost an appeal filed in 1999 that sought to lower the number of buses it had to buy from 248 to 160.

Plaintiffs say the MTA has failed on three main aspects of the consent decree: reducing bus overcrowding to no more than eight standing passengers; implementing a five-year improvement plan; and maintaining low fares.

Plaintiffs' counsel Richard Larson said the MTA had 1,000 violations of overcrowding in 2003, when buses were cited with more than 15 people standing. The current goal is to have no more than eight passengers standing.

But the MTA says it has put more than 400 buses on the streets during rush hour but still cannot reach 100 percent compliance on overcrowding because of the flow of traffic.

``It's an impossible standard,'' Littman said.

While the plaintiffs said the agency had failed to produce a five-year improvement plan, the MTA said it had simply moved ahead with improvements without going through the process of approving a formal proposal.

The plaintiffs are also seeking a rollback of new fares, which took effect in January, until the goals are reached.

Lisa Mascaro, [phone]

lisa.mascaro(at)dailynews.com