Detroit Department of Transportation seeks to add $7M to bus parts contract

For Detroiters who depend on the bus, reliability can have real consequences.

The Detroit Department of Transportation is now asking to add $7 million to a bus parts contract that has already used its original $7 million allocation.  

"There are routes in this city that are only run every 45 minutes, and if that one doesn't show, and you're 45 minutes late to work, you do that more than once or twice, and you don't have a job," said Megan Owens, executive director of Transportation Riders United.

At Monday's Public Health and Safety Committee meeting, DDOT said higher costs, tariffs and more maintenance are all factors.

"These funds are being used to help with our preventative maintenance, on-time repairs, and then, also helping us with our several of our down coaches," said Geo Joy, DDOT deputy director of maintenance.

Cramer says the biggest change is DDOT doing more repair and rehabilitation work itself.

"The biggest factor here is just we've been having this monthly spend is higher than what we had in the original contract because we've been using and consuming more of these parts," Robert Cramer, Detroit's executive director of transit, says. 

For riders, Owens says the test is whether that investment makes service more dependable.

"Better reliability. It is so important to have confidence that your bus is going to be there when it says, and DDOT has had some struggles with reliability," Owens said.

DDOT says it is now completing 98% to 99% of its scheduled trips week to week.

Cramer acknowledges $7 million is a significant increase, but says riders can see where the money is going.

"This is not a small amount of money. I want to make sure that that's clear. But the impact this is having, this is parts that we're bringing in and that we're using to repair and maintain the vehicles," Cramer said.

The city confirmed the additional $7 million would be funded completely with Federal Transit Administration grant money and an MDOT match.

The committee forwarded the contract with a recommendation to approve it for a full council vote.