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While thousands of new riders have climbed aboard the Metro light rail line, it’s a different story on the city’s buses.
So in an effort to get those numbers up, Metro is bringing back articulated buses. These are the 60-foot buses that have a pivoting joint in the middle so they can make turns.
Kurt Lurhsen with Metro Service Design and Development spoke to the board of directors at their mid-year budget update.
“We previously had a larger number of articulated buses which were retired.”
Those buses disappeared from Houston’s heavily-traveled routes a couple of years ago. They were replaced by standard 40-foot buses, but Lurhsen says that led to overcrowding.
“So with the re-introduction of articulated buses the customers’ experience on those lines should be vastly improved and should help drive ridership higher.”
Metro has purchased 70 articulated buses and they’ll be back on the streets starting in August. Metro officials hope revenues from the buses will provide a financial boost starting in fiscal year 2014.
