09.25.2003
LDF CELEBRATES VICTORY IN MTA CASE
Transit Agency Ordered to Expand Service and Reduce Overcrowding on L.A. County Buses

LOS ANGELES, CA (September 25, 2003) –The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF) recently celebrated a milestone on behalf of Los Angeles bus riders, in its case against the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA). In a decision made recently, the MTA was ordered to purchase at least 117 new buses to meet a key condition of a previous agreement between the Bus Riders Union and the MTA.

“This is great news for African Americans and other people of color who rely on buses to go about their daily lives, said Erica Teasley Linnick, Western Regional Counsel of LDF. “We’re pleased that MTA has been forced to take steps to make its bus services more comfortable and accessible for its customers.”

LDF filed the case, (Labor Community Strategy Center v. Los Angeles Metropolitan Transportation Authority) in U.S. District court in 1994. LDF won a settlement of this case in the fall of 1996 though a court-approved Consent Decree. The decree outlined goals to improve service which ranged from halting price increases to protect the working poor, developing a plan to expand service and decreasing overcrowding, especially on routes that impact low income, transit-dependent riders.

LDF has been active since then to ensure MTA’s compliance with the requirements of the agreement. When MTA failed to meet the consent decree's first concrete milestone for its promised reduction in overcrowding, LDF stepped in. After collecting and analyzing noncompliance data through April 1998, LDF litigated the meaning of the overcrowding standards, won favorable rulings, and MTA's admission in September 1998 that it was vastly in noncompliance.

“We’re committed to seeing this case to the end, which means making sure MTA provides its riders with improved and expanded service, said Teasley Linnick.

In addition to 117 buses, the special master has called for another 381 buses over the next few years for a total of 498 new buses. The proposal also calls for MTA to put the new buses on the road by December 2004.

The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc is not part of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). LDF was founded by the NAACP in 1940 and shares its commitment to equal rights. Since 1957, LDF has had a separate board, program, staff, office and budget.

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