samagon Posted January 17, 2011 Share Posted January 17, 2011 http://green.autoblog.com/2011/01/15/los-angeles-county-mta-retires-last-diesel-bus/I know METRO has been slowly implementing some hybrid buses, but I think it was on a trial basis.What are the chances (and potential time-line) of a story like this being run for Houston?It has taken nearly two decades for the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (LA MTA) to replace its entire fleet of diesel buses with coaches that operate on alternative-fuel technologies, but on Wednesday, the MTA completed the transition when it retired its final diesel bus. Officially, LA's MTA is now the nation's only major transit agency with an entire fleet of buses equipped with alternative-fuel technologies.Judging that they've been working on it for !20 years! and we just started introducing the hybrids recently, we're a long ways away.We'll probably have a fully developed light rail, and interconnecting subway system by the time we have no more diesel only buses. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedScare Posted January 17, 2011 Share Posted January 17, 2011 (edited) Metro is converting the entire fleet to ultra clean diesel electric hybrids, which produce 90% less particulate emissions than a regular diesel. They are replacing the approximately 1400 bus fleet at the rate of 100 per year since about 2007 or 2008. So, METRO will never have a non-diesel fleet per se, but should have an all hybrid fleet by sometime around 2020. Edited January 17, 2011 by RedScare Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ross Posted January 17, 2011 Share Posted January 17, 2011 Metro decided a few years back that the natural gas vehicles weren't worth the extra initial cost. They had a few on the streets for a while. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
editor Posted January 18, 2011 Share Posted January 18, 2011 Judging that they've been working on it for !20 years! and we just started introducing the hybrids recently, we're a long ways away.It would probably take less time these days because there are lots of federal grants and incentives for replacing old buses with new ones.Seriously, though -- who thought running a city bus on D-cells was a good idea? It takes thousands of them, and you get just one in backwards, and the whole bus doesn't work.What? Oh, diesel. Well, that's something else entirely. Nevermind. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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