Seattle Bus Cleanup To Cost $607,000

Metro Transit plans to spend $607,000 in the coming year to battle an increase in the amount of vandalism on city buses and transit shelters, agency officials said.

The department in June will deploy a 13-member crew of upholsters, painters and other workers to battle the felt-pen inscriptions on seat cushions and the spray-painted slogans on bus stops and the buses themselves, said Brian O’Leary, Metro’s manager of vehicle maintenance.

“It’s catch-up because it has gotten ahead of us,” O’Leary said.

The cleaning crew will look into solutions used by Los Angeles and New York transit agencies.

The $607,000 will come from Metro’s share of sales taxes as well as from fare box revenue. The cost of the cleaning effort could pay for three county immunization clinics for a year or the annual salaries of 14 police officers, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported Saturday.