JUDGE TO RULE BY OCT. 26 ON COURT'S MTA ROLE BUS RIDERS UNION WANTS INTERVENTION TO CONTINUE.

Byline: RACHEL URANGA Staff Writer

A judge will rule next week whether the MTA's $1 billion effort to improve bus service for the urban poor meets the provisions of a 10-year-old consent decree.

After a hearing Thursday, U.S. District Court Judge Terry Hatter said he will issue a ruling by Oct. 26 on whether to extend the decree five more years. It is set to expire Oct. 29.

The Bus Riders Union, whose 1996 lawsuit led to the decree, says the Metropolitan Transportation Authority has failed to abolish crowding and might cut bus service and increase fares unless the decree is extended.

``This consent decree is about the lives and aspirations of this county's poorest people. They need this system for everything,'' said Connie Rice, a noted civil-rights attorney representing the group.

But MTA officials say the agency, which has replaced the 2,000-bus fleet and expanded service, no longer needs to be overseen by a court-appointed special master under a consent decree.

``We are in substantial compliance today,'' said MTA attorney Patricia Glaser. ``The MTA buses use only 35 percent of their capacity overall throughout the system on a day-to-day basis.''

Services detailed

During the two-hour hearing, Glaser detailed the services the MTA has added over the past decade, including Rapid Bus lines and hundreds of 40-foot-long buses.

``We have done, in our view, a heck of a job. The concept that running the MTA should be in the hands of a special master or lawyers is, in our view, ludicrous.''

In its 1996 lawsuit, the BRU accused the MTA of discriminating against poor and minority riders by offering substandard bus service while building up subway lines. MTA officials agreed to the decree in order to settle the suit.

The Bus Riders Union is asking Hatter not only to extend the decree, but also to fine the MTA $100 the first day and double that each subsequent day it is out of compliance. That money would be spent on remedies.

But if the decree expires as scheduled Oct. 29, the MTA would no longer have to consult with the riders group about changes to bus routes. Officials have long complained that the decree forces them to run a costly, inefficient service.

MTA vows stability

Agency officials have vowed to retain current levels of bus service, but said the routes and service hours might be altered.

``Our view and desire is that we are going to provide the best service we possibly can, and that is not going to change regardless if there is a court involved or not,'' MTA chief Roger Snoble said after the hearings.

The judge is being asked to interpret the MTA's detailed logs on ridership to determine whether the agency is in compliance. Under the decree, a bus is considered ``crowded'' when eight or more riders are left without seats for 20 minutes.

The MTA monitors 112 of its 179 bus lines quarterly. The 20 busiest are surveyed every 20 minutes, three times a month.

MTA lawyers argue that Hatter should consider the average of those logs rather than look at individual lines or days -- as the union does.

``What we are talking about is a small sample of violations, and none of this captures the experience of being on one of these crowded buses. This decree has ceilings for a reason, and the MTA is nowhere near meeting them,'' Rice said.

rachel.uranga(at)dailynews.com

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