(RTC photo)
Bus fleets in Las Vegas face several unique challenges that cause vehicles to wear down quicker and experience more service outages – including extreme heat, long operation hours, and an influx of millions of tourists every year.
Those service outages are exacerbated by a federal rule that caps the number of spare buses a transit agency can maintain at 20% of their overall bus fleet, regardless of how many more buses a transit service may need to ensure reliable service.
Transit agencies that keep more spare buses than allowed risk a loss of federal funding if they aren’t granted an exemption from the Federal Transit Authority for additional spare buses. However, the FTA has never granted a waiver for additional buses to any state.
Southern Nevada’s congressional delegation is now asking the FTA to remove or increase its cap on the number of spare buses the Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada (RTC) can maintain in Las Vegas.
In a letter Thursday Democratic U.S. Sens. Jacky Rosen and Catherine Cortez Masto – along with Reps. Susie Lee, Steven Horsford, and Dina Titus – said “transit agencies across the country face a variety of operational and environmental challenges that often require maintaining spare bus ratios above the current 20% cap.”
“Las Vegas, like many western cities, experiences extreme heat that accelerates bus wear and increases breakdown frequency, requiring more frequent maintenance to keep vehicles operational. This puts significant strain on RTC’s fleet, as insufficient spares can lead to service disruptions for the approximately 80% of Las Vegas riders who rely on transit for commuting to work,” wrote the delegation.
High transit demand and the extreme desert climate leads to rapid vehicle wear and tear in Las Vegas, especially for high-mileage buses that operate in harsh conditions.
Unlike many other cities, tourism and a non-traditional workforce creates high peak demand for transit service throughout the day, with some routes operating 24 hours daily.
Asphalt in the city can also reach temperatures of more than 140 degrees Fahrenheit in the summer, according to the RTC, increasing maintenance needs for buses traveling on roads throughout the entire day, which reduces the fleet’s availability.
Frequent special events further complicate fleet management, placing further strain on an already stretched fleet.
Special events like conventions and sporting events frequently create a surge in ridership that requires more spare buses to provide reliable transit, said the RTC.
“Las Vegas’s vibrant tourism economy depends on reliable transit service to transport millions of visitors, not just year-round residents, especially during major events such as the Super Bowl, Formula 1 Grand Prix, FIFA tournaments, and large concerts,” wrote the delegation.
The agency regularly performs cooling system checks and addresses common wear-and-tear issues like battery and alternator failures exacerbated by the intense heat. Despite these efforts, the challenge of meeting the FTA’s spare ratio requirement of 20% remains.