Six new buses arrive at CATS depot

Advocate staff photo by PATRICK DENNIS -- A new, Capital Area Transit System bus at the CATS maintenance yard Monday prepares to join the fleet. The new buses are all white instead of the blue/purple and white striped color motifs previously associated with CATS buses. The bus system's manager said he's not sure if they will be painted.

Six new white CATS buses are circling the parish roads.

The new, 35-foot buses arrived about a week ago, said Brian Marshall, Capital Area Transit System chief administrative officer.

He said the white buses are not an intentional redesign. They just haven’t been painted like the other buses yet.

But he said he’s not sure if they will be painted.

The buses were ordered about a year ago, Marshall said. They were $330,000 each, and paid for entirely by a federal grant.

The new vehicles bring CATS’ total fleet to 62 buses.

He said the addition of new buses helps CATS’ overall reliability, because it gives a break to some of the older buses.

In July, CATS was awarded a $5.2 million federal grant which will purchase 12 more 35-foot buses and 15 large vans.

Marshall said the vans will be ready by the end of this year, and the 12 buses will be ready next year.

The new buses will help CATS as it begins working to expand bus routes and improve the overall quality of service, Marshall said. The route expansions and other improvements were made possible by the 10.6-mill property tax approved by Baton Rouge and Baker voters in April.

CATS officials said the tax will reduce wait times from an average of 75 minutes to 15 minutes during peak hours.

Comments

1) Comment by rdj! - 18/10/2012

Wow... this is just a plain ol' ugly FALSEHOOD... matter of fact the Advocate printed an article the week after buses "rolled into town" with the trolleys! Opps! They actually sat in the yard for months awaiting cameras, fare boxes and graphics... due to budget cuts

2) Comment by lachairman - 21/08/2012

These buses along with the new trolleys were ordered back in 2009 as part of ARRA stimulus package. They were delivered to CATS many months ago. Theey could not be put in service because CATS had too many buses in its fleet. The article was in the Advocate. Why would CATS management and board want to deceive the public?

3) Comment by lachairman - 21/08/2012

4) Comment by Being_Stupid - 21/08/2012

Keep the buses white. There is absolutely no need to paint those tacky blue-green and purple stripes and stupid decals along the side of an otherwise perfectly clean and white bus. The stripes makes these white buses look like white trash . You don't paint stupid stripes on a brand new white vehicle. White is also good because it keeps the sun from heating up the vehicle during the hot summer months.

5) Comment by markedwardmarchiafava - 21/08/2012

Obama must be proud.

6) Comment by CountryBoysCanSurvive - 21/08/2012

WOW, reverse Oreo Buses ...white on the outside and black in the middle.