MTA transit officials want to purchase nearly $100 million worth of new buses, of which the agency’s board is expected to vote on during its monthly meeting on Wednesday.
Per MTA procurement documents, the agency will spend $97,641,522 on 100 new buses from Nova Bus, (US) Inc., pending board approval. The buses are described as low-floor, 40-foot buses to be woven into the NYC Transit system throughout 2027.
The buses would be paid for under the MTA’s state-approved $68.4 billion capital plan. Although the plan calls for funding to grow the agency’s “zero-emissions” and “fully electric fleet” by 2040, the buses in the procurement request run on clean diesel, according to MTA documents.
The request is an addition to an initial “base contract” of 275 similar, but diesel-electric hybrid buses to replace those that were beyond their 12-year service life, MTA documents stated.
“The 100 buses that are the subject of this modification will include the remaining 50 options as well as an additional 50 buses,” MTA documents read. “ When NYC Transit approached Nova Bus about exercising the remaining option for 50 buses, Nova Bus indicated that it had additional production capacity at the end of 2026.”
The agency said it decided to take advantage of this “unforeseen opportunity” by purchasing an additional 50 buses, given the need to replace aging vehicles.
Buses to be outfitted with cameras for traffic enforcement
The new buses, if approved for purchase, will be outfitted with driver enclosure, OMNY fare-payment technology and Automated Camera Enforcement (ACE).
Currently, more than 1,400 buses are now ACE-equipped covering 560 miles of routes, the MTA said, to catch drivers improperly using or parking in bus lanes in NYC. According to the agency, Bus routes with ACE, on average, have increased speeds by 5% with some corridors seeing gains as high as 30%.
ACE fines start at $50 and increase by $50 for each additional violation received. A list of ACE bus routes is available at mta.info.
The MTA is expected to vote on the bus purchase requests on Dec. 17.
