New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority intends to add 2,042 state-of-the-art buses to its transportation fleet over five years, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced March 8.
The new buses will replace nearly 40% of the current fleet and cost $1.3 billion out of the MTA's capital program. The first unit will hit the streets next month, said MTA Chairman Thomas Prendergast. They will include enhanced amenities such as USB charging ports and Wi-Fi.
Seventy-five of the first new buses will make their debut in the second and third quarters of this year in Queens, and over the next two years another 70 buses will begin operating in Brooklyn, 209 in the Bronx, and 18 in Manhattan.
New Flyer Industries, which plans to open a new facility Western New York in November to assemble major components, is manufacturing the first 75 buses scheduled to roll out this year.
Buses will have two to three LCD screens mounted inside the bus, displaying everything from automated stop announcements, available transfers at each stop, news, weather and advertising as well as real-time communication from the bus command center.
