MTA CLAIMS DECREE IS MET.

Byline: RACHEL URANGA Staff Writer

Arguing the Metropolitan Transportation Authority has failed to remedy a discriminatory transportation system, the Bus Riders Union is fighting to extend a 10-year consent decree, but MTA officials say they see the end of the line ahead.

Laying out their legal defense on Friday, MTA officials contend their $1.2 billion effort to expand bus lines and prevent overcrowding has successfully met the demands of the decree set to expire in October.

``There is no reason the consent decree should be extended,'' said Charles Safer, the MTA's lawyer. ``It's the MTA's position that is in compliance with the consent decree.''

But the Bus Riders Union -- which last month asked the federal court to extend the decree for an additional four years -- argues that buses used by the urban poor remain crowded and the MTA needs to add at least 300 buses and 250 drivers to be in compliance.

``The experience for the bus riders is not the reduced overcrowding that the MTA promised to provide nine and a half years ago,'' said Richard Larson, an NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund attorney who representing the riders. ``Just as the court extended the consent decree over the LAPD, we are asking the court to extend this consent decree over MTA. More MTA bus lines are more crowded today than they were two years ago when the court found the MTA in violation of the decree.''

The MTA and the Bus Riders Union entered the consent decree after the group sued the agency in 1994. The union claimed bus riders' civil rights were being violated as the agency built up suburban rail lines while bus service for poor urban riders remained crowded and unreliable.

Under the decree, the MTA was mandated to reduce overcrowding, keep fares low and expand bus service.

Since 1996, the MTA has largely replaced its 2,000-vehicle fleet, which

was prone to breakdowns, and has expanded its bus service hours from 6.6 million hours to 7.8 million hours annually.

The agency now spends 40 percent of its $3 billion budget on bus operations despite continued problems balancing an operations budget that cannot be sustained by revenues. Officials say they are in compliance while complaining that the rigid court requirements prevent them from placing bus and rail services in areas most needed or to shuffle bus assignments to keep particular lines from becoming overcrowded.

The court has, over the years, ordered the MTA to buy hundreds of new buses so no more than eight bus riders go without a seat for 20 minutes on any bus.

Still, the Bus Riders Union says overcrowding has worsened despite these efforts.

The union claims there are more than a dozen lines that remain crowded and out of court compliance, a point the MTA disputes.

rachel.uranga(at)dailynews.com

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