An MTA bus in Lower Manhattan. Wednesday, May 6, 2026.
Photo by Lloyd Mitchell
An MTA panel on Wednesday approved the purchase of 92 new clean diesel express buses to replace an aging fleet operating out of a Staten Island depot.
The MTA board approved the $120.8 million purchase from Motor Coach Industries Inc. (MCI) during its May 20 meeting. The cost will also cover manuals, diagnostic tools, testing, training, and spare parts, according to MTA documents. Each bus in the purchase costs roughly $1.3 million.
The new vehicles will replace a fleet that has reached the end of its useful life of 12 years.
They will be equipped with a suite of new features, according to the MTA. Those include a driver enclosure, “collision avoidance system with intelligent pedestrian turn warning,” OMNY readers, and Automated Camera Enforcement (ACE) cameras — which the MTA and city use to ticket drivers occupying or parking in bus lanes.
The buses will run on clean diesel fuel, rather than being electric, even though the MTA committed to making its entire 5,800 bus fleet fully electric by 2040 in its latest $68 billion capital plan. Under its plan, the MTA is supposed to swap out 500 diesel for electric buses between last year and this year.
However, 60 electric buses the MTA put into service last year were found to have persistent reliability issues due to overheating and battery failures that prevented full charging.
The MTA board approved the contract with MCI without going through competitive bidding, as no other companies responded to NYC Transit, according to MTA documents.
The firm will deliver the new buses between late 2028 and late 2029.