U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer is pushing to add 24 new buses to the fleet of the Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority.
Schumer says the NFTA's existing fleet is twenty percent older than the national average. New compressed gas buses would be more reliable and better for the environment.
One advocate, Todd Vaarwerk, says the proposal is especially important because new buses would also help the disabled stay active in the community. "Imagine if you're a person with a disability who needs to go to work, or to the doctor, or to do something critical with services that are going to keep you in the community and not in the nursing home." Vaarwerk says that right now some buses are either not equipped to handle disabled passengers or the equipment they have is broken.
Schumer says he will seek $12 million in federal investments for not only the buses but to install a new fueling station and implement a new bus safety training program for NFTA drivers.
