For two years during the pandemic, the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority was unable to process numerous old, retired buses for auction – a process that could have helped the South Bay transit agency recoup tens of thousands of public dollars it spent on the vehicles. Each bus originally cost about $500,000 each, the agency said.
VTA said the delays with the buses resulted from a separate situation, compared to what happened with the nearly 100 Priuses and vans VTA neglected in a parking lot for more than four years, the Investigative Unit found in January. At one point, catalytic converter thieves targeted the Priuses, devaluing the cars further. As a result of the NBC Bay Area investigation, the agency is now working on auctioning off the cars and vans.
WATCH NOW: Exclusive: 95 VTA taxpayer-funded vehicles left to depreciate 4+ years, some targeted by thieves
Regarding the decommissioned buses, VTA said during 2020 and 2021 it was in the process of finding a new auction house contractor, and VTA workers who oversaw preparing old buses for auction were busy with other pandemic-related duties, such as retrofitting other buses with COVID barriers, hand sanitizers and mask dispensers.
In May 2022, the agency resumed the auction process, and 40 old buses were either scrapped or sent to auction.
In 2023, 40 decommissioned buses were sent to auction. VTA expects to net about $800-$1,000 for each.
Currently, around 18 articulated 60-foot buses are in the agency’s Cerone Division yard awaiting processing because other buses are smaller, older, and prioritized for auction, VTA said. As of February 2024, a total of 26 coaches are in the process of being picked up.
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For more than two months, the NBC Bay Area Investigative Unit has asked to interview VTA staff about these issues, including what happened with its fleet of neglected paratransit cars. The unit requested to speak with VTA’s Chief Operating Officer Derik Calhoun and Assistant General Manager/Chief Financial Officer Greg Richardson. VTA declined all on-camera interviews and did not respond to requests regarding Calhoun and Richardson.
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In a statement, a VTA spokesperson said, “Generally, decommissioned buses each have between 800,000 and 1 million miles on them, over about 15-20 years of use, bringing them to the end of their useful life.”
