![]() That is due to COVID-related staff reductions from 707 to 550 employees, according to the staff report. Omnitrans will realize a 20%-22% drop in its current budget as compared to last year, agency data shows. The operating budget was also underfunded in 2019 and SBCTA agreed to provide $100 million to Omnitrans to keep it in the black through 2040, as long as it reduced costs. The bulk run on compressed natural gas, a fuel much cleaner than diesel. So far, Omnitrans has received two electric buses that will go into service in about two months, Rogers said. “Otherwise this push to electrify everything is just not practical,” she said. Rutherford is asking CARB and the state Legislature for help. “That mandate still exists and the funding sources aren’t there to support that mandate,” said San Bernardino County Supervisor Janice Rutherford, who serves on both transit agency boards, on Thursday, Jan. The clean bus initiative is a program from the California Air Resources Board for reducing tailpipe pollutants that produce smog, as well as greenhouse gases that contribute to global climate change. One major worry is how the bus agency will pay for a state environmental mandate costing about $400 million over 20 years to replace its fleet of buses - about 160 large buses - from compressed natural gas to electric. A full-sized electric bus rides along Foothill Boulevard in East Pasadena near Halstead Street on Tuesday, March 19, 2019. “Now may not be the best time to institute major organizational changes in the midst of managing transit services in ‘the new normal,’ ” said the report. The consultant’s report concluded that issues of personnel, labor unions and service changes would be best left up to an in-tact Omnitrans. ![]() The pension payoff would have overwhelmed any ongoing savings from consolidation and the SBCTA staff recommended abandoning consolidation. The idea was to end duplication of management, boards, marketing and find cost savings.īut the report, presented to the SBCTA board in October, said the move would require paying off the agency’s unfunded pension liability at a one-time cost of between $100 million to $174 million. The SBCTA spent $590,071 on a consultant’s study looking at folding Omnitrans into SBCTA.
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