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Magic Buses
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Business New Haven
2/4/2002
By:
Linda Mele
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If you are one of those who ride on one of the 1,060 CTTransit buses in the state (115 in New Haven) or who walk around downtown New Haven, Hartford or Stamford regularly, advertisements on the sides of buses are no novelty. One day, it seems, they just sort of popped up.
Actually, when the state took over the bus operations in the 1970s this kind of income generator was already being discussed, according to DOT Transit Administrator Michael Sanders.
Today, a private contractor sells space on the buses and the state receives about $800,000 per year toward operating costs just from buses in Hartford, Stamford and New Haven, Sanders explains.
Since the average life of a bus is about 12 years, ads can be sold on a more long-term basis at a reasonable cost. Old buses will be kept in reserve or sold to other countries like Guatemala, says Sanders. Each bus costs an average of $275,000, Sanders says, and the funds generated by the ads help defray acquisition and maintenance costs.
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