Bus riders’ problems not just a lot of hot air

Adrienne Packer

Friday, Aug. 14, 1998 | 10:56 a.m.

Until bus manufacturers find air-conditioning equipment that functions efficiently in a desert climate, the Citizens Area Transit may not have any solutions for riders who have lost their cool.

David Boggs, general manager of ATC/Vancom of Nevada, which operates the county's bus system, said air conditioners installed in Las Vegas coaches were not made to operate in scorching temperatures.

"Those air-conditioning systems were made for other cities, but not Las Vegas," Boggs told the Regional Transportation Commission on Thursday.

The explanation didn't satisfy Las Vegas Mayor Jan Laverty Jones, who fields 10 to 15 phone calls a day from bus passengers tired of riding in hot and stuffy coaches. Jones said she also is concerned that nine bus drivers have been treated for heat exhaustion this summer.

"I don't want to point fingers, I want to find a solution," said Jones, who sits on the transportation commission. "We do live in a desert environment. It's our responsibility to put as much pressure on (bus manufacturers) to put in something that works."

Boggs said an air conditioner that works properly will drop temperatures inside a coach by 20 degrees, an industry-wide standard. In most cities, that means a comfortable 60 or 70 degrees inside the bus.

In Las Vegas, however, summertime temperatures typically reach 110 degrees and the air inside the coach cools only to 90 degrees.

Boggs told commissioners also to take into consideration that buses are most times packed with the doors constantly opening and closing. He added that the heat rising from the asphalt roads increases the temperature outside the bus door by 15 degrees.

"The fact is, it's going to be warm inside the bus, and that doesn't mean the air conditioner isn't working; it means there are other issues," Boggs said.

ATC/Vancom received 297 reports of air-conditioning failures in July and found that only 80 units were malfunctioning. So far this month, 22 reports of air-conditioning trouble have been filed, and 17 were found to be valid, Boggs said. He said in the past 35 days, $64,000 has been spent on air-conditioner maintenance.

Stanton Wilkerson, marketing manager for the Regional Transportation Commission, said CAT has been in existence for only six years and operators are dealing with the unexpected. The RTC was surprised its ridership increased so quickly and never considered that air-conditioning systems may be inadequate for the hot climate.

Now that Las Vegas bus operators know there is a problem with cooling the vehicles, they must persuade bus manufacturers who might deal with only two other desert communities with expansive transit systems -- Tucson and Phoenix.

"If bus manufacturers are making more buses for the Midwest, their standard is a lot less because they're not dealing with June, July, August temperatures of 100 degrees," Wilkerson said. "We're in the process of working with bus manufacturers and transit air-conditioning manufacturers to help them with their development of an air conditioner to fit Las Vegas' and Southern Nevada's needs."

Wilkerson said CAT fortunately receives a healthy return on fare boxes and can afford to make necessary repairs to the coaches' air conditioners. He said, however, that he wouldn't rule out future fare hikes.

"Anything that affects the operation of the system could have a direct relationship on fares," Wilkerson said. "I don't think air-conditioner repairs alone will cause a fare increase."

During Thursday's meeting, Jones also asked ATC/Vancom to compare air-conditioning failures, and the time it takes to switch malfunctioning buses, with Phoenix Transit in Arizona, which has a similar climate.

While Phoenix has the same buses that operate in similar weather conditions, the Arizona transit system has 181 more spare coaches than CAT. Therefore, Boggs said, backups are always available and can come to the rescue quickly.

CAT handles between 130,000 and 150,000 passengers a day, twice the ridership as Phoenix. Boggs said when a bus breaks down, the company aims to have it repaired or replaced within an hour.

Jones said, however, sometimes it's taken as long as six hours.