Editorial: Bus riders, RTC need explanation

Riders of Citizens Area Transit buses lately have been hot under the collar -- figuratively and literally.

Passengers have complained that often the buses they ride have no air conditioning. But it's not just the passengers with a beef. Even bus drivers have been affected this summer, with nine of them being treated for heat exhaustion.

At a meeting Thursday of the Regional Transportation Commission, ATC/Vancom, which operates the county's bus system, said the problem is that bus makers use air-conditioning equipment that is designed for the Midwest, not the Southwest desert. David Boggs, ATC/Vancom's general manager, said that while it may be warm inside the bus during the summer, it doesn't mean that the air conditioner isn't working, it's just that the air conditioning units can only cool down the buses so much. But that isn't the whole story.

As the Sun's Adrienne Packer reported, ATC/Vancom did acknowledge that it received almost 300 reports of air conditioning failures in July. Of this amount, 80 units were found to be malfunctioning. So far in August there have been 22 reports of air conditioning not working properly and 17 of these were valid.

During the RTC meeting Las Vegas Mayor Jan Laverty Jones directed the company to compare air conditioning failure rates here, and the time it takes to replace them with properly running buses, with the Phoenix bus system. Because Phoenix has 181 more spare buses, according to ATC/Vancom, backups are readily available and can replace the bad buses more quickly.

ATC/Vancom should make it crystal clear to the bus manufacturer that CAT and its riders are not getting what they paid for. After all, while cars with air conditioning can be taxed on the hottest days in Las Vegas, most still perform well under the conditions.

The RTC should hold a special public hearing to discuss what options are available after it hears back from ATC/Vancom. The bottom line is that it is unacceptable for CAT buses to have experienced the level of malfunctioning that has occurred this summer.

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