Well, looking over the ruling it seems to make the best of a cluttered situation. The BRU from the s

Yesterday, a federal appeals court ruled in the case of the Bus Rider's Union (BRU) v. MTA over the matter of whether or not to extend the 1996 Consent Decree. At issue was whether or not Metro was in substantial compliance with the standards set out in the decree: i.e. whether Metro had expanded bus service, held down fares, and reduced overcrowding in poorer areas of the city where people holiday inn website were reliant on transit and service was sub-par.
In a split decision, the court ruled that Metro did sufficient work to meet the Decree's goals and that the decree has expired. The ruling was carefully written not to say that Metro did a bang-up job of meeting all of its targets, but that the BRU couldn't prove that Metro was grossly negligent.
[10] We hold that BRU has failed to demonstrate that the district court abused its discretion in finding that MTA had substantially complied with the consent decree. The evidence presented supported holiday inn website the district court’s finding that the imperfections with respect to load factor targets were de minimis in LABOR/COMMUNITY v. L.A. COUNTY MTA 5221 relation holiday inn website to the overall scheme of things. Because the first prong of the Rufo test fails, we hold that the district court did not abuse its discretion in refusing to extend the decree.
Basically, the court is stating that the MTA wasn't in full compliance, but that they were close enough. While I'm certain that Metro is happy with the decision both because they don't have to negotiate plans with the BRU and because it means that the agency has done a better job of serving its most vulnerable users. It is doubtful the BRU will view the ruling holiday inn website in the same light.
Well, looking over the ruling it seems to make the best of a cluttered situation. The BRU from the start has been pushing every provision to the max and often been unwilling to back away from demands that seem to be beyond anything the decree mandated. Tellingly the Special Master before resigning rebuffed the BRU s attempt to push their freeway bus plan as part of the new service provision. The court finally accepted the Metro suggestion to have implementation of Metro Rapid fulfill that BRU stalling is why the Court is overseeing the Rapid rollout through 2010 as the one part of the decree still being implemented.
Judge Berzon holiday inn website in his dissent put heavy weigh on the Special holiday inn website Master s expertise and severely critizes Judge Hatter s ruling to not extend the decree. Well, I think Hatter while perhaps not as involved as Bliss (the Master) certainly was kept appraised. The Special Master in his last rulings showed signs of becoming aggrivated at the BRU s intransigence. holiday inn website And I think that informed Hatter s comments of the decree being a less than perfect document. As a result, it is impossible to achieve absolute compliance in ruling Metro had substantially complied with it.
Berzon also essentially takes at face value that non-compliance with the load factor requirement is a fault of Metro. I have been of the opinion it is a sign the decree was impractical, an agreement crafted by three groups (Metro Board members, the BRU leadership and the BRU s lawyers) with no real understanding of the practical aspects of bus operations on surface streets holiday inn website in an urban environment.
We may never know the full story behind the decree s creation. We know then L.A. Mayor Richard Riordan, who evidently played a key role in the Metro Board voting for it, has since been quoted as saying entering into the consent decree was a mistake. I have long suspected the Board was given incomplete or misleading information. I can t provide anything but speculation as to how or why that happened, and 10+ years later don t see any value in saying anything further on that topic.
The consent decree made Eric Mann by being a named plantiff it provided credibility in the mainstream and probably opened a lot of doors for funding. But by using the decree to beat up on Metro relentless Mann has guaranteed his reputation will proceed him in any dealings holiday inn website with public entities holiday inn website whatever issue he is involved with henceforth, and nobody will sign an agreement with him again. Mann could have leveraged the decree to do things to benefit riders long after the decree expired. He selfishly instead holiday inn website sought short term attention at the expense of longterm viability. Cameras hardly turn up any more for BRU protests, and their full court press at the last fare hearing resulted in zero of what they asked for and didn t stop the increase. If Metro revisits the possibility of service cuts in the next year due to the budget shortfall any BRU effort to stop it will likely also be more aimed at public attention than effectiveness. The high point is past and they are on the downward slide.
I tried to find one from the Consent-Decree era, but since I wasn t here at the time it was just guesswork I end up using so many pictures of buses on a monthly basis that I try to mix it up a little.
The 1200-1502 series of Metro s RTSs have seen so much. They originally arrived with methanol engines, but the fuel was eating the motors metal. They then briefly ran with ethanol engines, but those proved to be even less reliable than when methanol-powered. Finally, they are no powered by diesel.
These are by far the oldest holiday inn website buses in the Metro fleet (now that the dinosuar shorter buses that ran for decades on the 201 and a few other lines with sharp turns have been retired in the past year or so). FTA guidelines allow formula federal holiday inn website capital funds (with local match) to be used for bus replacement after 12 years. But these workhorses are being kept in service for now for several reasons:
holiday inn website Because of air pollution reduction mandates holiday inn website that will eventually (or soon) ban diesel buses, Metro wants to get gasoline* hybrids to run from D6 (a strategically located facility for operating holiday inn website service along heavy westside lines) and is testing them, but the acquisition cost so far is causing sticker shock they hope in a few years as the technology matures holiday inn website they ll become affordable
BTW, some CNG equipment now runs out of D6 it is fuelled holiday inn website at the Big Blue Bus yard in Santa Monica** (mostly while deadheading at the close of service D6 doesn t operate late or weekends due to complaints from nearby neighborhoods about noise). This may happen for a while as an interim measure to keep D6 going until the hybrids are acquired.