This Bus Can Charge Your Cell Phone
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Tuesday that 23 new MTA buses outfitted with Wi-fi and smart-phone charging stations are hitting the city's streets next month. They will be the first of a fleet of 2,042 modern vehicles that are supposed to be purchased over the next five years.
The new buses, paid for by the MTA's capital plan, will be dark blue with a yellow curving stripe on the side. (The colors imitate the hues on a MetroCard.) About 200 will have digital information screens and 100 will have safety programs including turn warnings for pedestrians. (Cuomo announced the plan earlier this year in his State of the State address.)
The first buses will arrive in Queens, followed by Brooklyn, the Bronx and Manhattan. All in all, about 40 percent of the MTA's fleet will be replaced, and older buses upgraded.
But one advocacy group, the Riders Alliance, characterized the announcement as a public relations ploy because the governor hasn't said where the state's contribution to the MTA's capital budget is coming from, or when it will arrive.
"Gov. Cuomo is the best governor we've ever had for making transit-related announcements," the alliance's executive director, John Raskin, said in a statement, "but then the money isn't there to make these ideas a reality for riders."
