Carson to get 4 new buses with stimulus funds

By February of next year, four new public transit buses will be jumping around Carson.

U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood announced Thursday that $1.1 million in stimulus funds would go to Carson City and Douglas County.

Funds will be used to purchase four replacement buses in Carson City and one in Douglas, said Jump Around Carson (JAC) Coordinator Keith Pearson.

"These will be newer, bigger and better buses," Pearson said. "We were starting to reach capacity."

Each new 34-foot bus can carry 30 passengers, and will feature low floors, he said.

"With the low floors, we will be able to pull right up to a stop and put the ramp out to the curb so a wheelchair can roll right in rather than having the driver get out to lower a lift. This will be a real benefit to us, especially for our fixed routes so we don't get behind on our schedules," Pearson said.

After five years or 150,000 miles, the useful life of a transit bus is considered over, Pearson said, and it is sent out to auction. The city's fleet department gets about $2,000 for the used buses. New buses cost about $180,000, but are 100 percent paid by federal funds.

Other projects toward which Carson City will apply the funds will be software and maintenance.

"The software will help JAC Assist plan its (pre-scheduled) pickups so drivers aren't left to guess the best routes," Pearson said. "This will allow us to operate our JAC Assist buses more efficiently by saving time, fuel and mileage.

"We just found out that we can use 10 percent of the funds for operation. That wasn't allowed before," he said.

After nearly four years of operation, Pearson said JAC has continued to grow and improve.

"We're moving about 12,000 people a month, and each year, that keeps growing," he said. "We're seen great improvements and people are happy with us as we continue to be on time and reliable."

Since President Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act into law on Feb. 17, 343 grants totaling $3.2 billion have been made available for transit improvements throughout the nation.

"These funds are creating jobs now while investing in the future of our transit systems," said Administrator Peter Rogoff of the Federal Transit Administration (FTA). "The public's demand for transit service continues to grow, and these dollars will help meet that need."