US Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx arrived in Detroit today to bring good news to Mayor Mike Duggan and 90,000 daily riders of the Detroit Department of Transportation system.
Joining Mayor Duggan at an event at Cass Technical High School today, Secretary Foxx announced that the U.S. Department of Transportation has approved a $25.9 million grant to the city of Detroit for the purchase of 50 new coaches. The new buses will replace old ones in the city’s aging fleet that are beyond their useful service life.
Funding for the buses is being provided through the Federal Transit Authority’s “Ladders of Opportunity” program, a $100 million initiative announced earlier this year to fund key transit projects that help connect disadvantaged or low-income individuals to jobs. The Michigan Department of Transportation will provide a 20% match to the grant, which brings the total that DDOT will receive up to $32.375 million.
Since taking office, Mayor Duggan has worked to identify funding for the new buses. Today, he thanked Secretary Foxx for recognizing that Detroiters have struggled too long with an inadequate transportation system. The Mayor said the ability to significantly upgrade the DDOT fleet will help provide a bus system residents can rely on when they need it.
“There is a tremendous amount of opportunity being created in Detroit right now and it’s only going to increase. Jobs are going be created by the thousands very soon,” Mayor Duggan said. “Thanks to the commitment of Secretary Foxx and the White House, we soon will be able to provide our customers a bus system that can connect them to these jobs so they can share equally in Detroit’s progress,” the Mayor added.
DDOT currently has a vehicle fleet of 421 buses, however 158 of them were purchased 12 or more years ago and are either past their useful life or will exceed their useful life later this year. The city’s bus system also has cut 30 percent of its service since 2010, and has been plagued by reliability issues.
“First we are going to stabilize our system and begin providing reliable scheduled service. Then we begin to add new service as more of these new buses come on line,” the Mayor said.
In its grant proposal, the city proposed to purchase a mix of standard coaches, hybrid fuel coaches and longer articulated buses for higher capacity along major routes.
The industry standard time to order, build and deliver these buses is approximately 24 months. However, DDOT will be seeking to “piggy back” on orders placed by other cities that already are in the production queue in order to receive some of the buses in a faster time frame.
“If we can attach portions of our order to existing ones in other cities, we may be able to receive some of our buses more quickly so we can get them on the road to serve our customers,” said DDOT Director Dan Dirks.
The new buses to be funded by this grant are in addition to an order of 31 buses DDOT expects to start receiving by January, bringing to at least 81 the number of new buses that will be added to the DDOT fleet over the next two years.
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