Metro to test its bus emissions, cost effectiveness
By: Michael Neibauer
Examiner Staff Writer
October 22, 2009
Metro will team with West Virginia University to settle once and for all which of its bus types, compressed natural gas, clean diesel or hybrid, runs cleaner and is more cost effective.
The $200,000 study, which the Metro board is expected to approve Thursday, will be funded entirely by the East Coast Hybrid Consortium, a coalition of transit-oriented groups interested in alternative fuel technologies. If Metro decides to expand the contract into future years, it will have to come up with the money itself.
Metro owns roughly 1,500 buses, of which 460 are compressed natural gas, 117 are clean diesel and 50 are diesel-electric hybrid. The rest run on standard, low-sulfur diesel fuel.
The West Virginia University Research Corp. will perform emissions testing, collect actual emissions and operating data, and gather in-service vehicle performance and operating cost information, like miles per gallon. The goal, Metro says, is to assist "in determining which of the fuels and propulsion systems is the cleanest burning and the most cost effective," and which will be the preferred option for future purchases. The results could save, or cost, Metro millions of dollars. Hybrid buses costs $497,000 on average, CNG buses $383,000 and clean diesel buses $350,000 each, according to the National Capital Region Transportation Planning Board. Metro has sought to buy 100 or more new buses each year, if the money is available.
Chris Zimmerman, a Metro Board member from Virginia, said the research will be useful and "may produce something." But Zimmerman said the bus fleet should remain flexible and diversified -- running on various fuels and engines.
"I don't think there's a silver bullet you're going to find," Zimmerman told The Examiner. "You're going to look at it in the future and we're going to need a diversity of power sources and a diversity of technologies. No one in the industry has been able to say what's going to happen or when." CNG buses remain the most environmentally friendly and dependable, Zimmerman said. Diesel hybrids, he said, have proven less dependable, but that may change as the technology improves. According to Metro, diesel-hybrids get the best fuel economy and are therefore the least expensive to operate.
"Technology changes rapidly and there have been many new developments in bus technology over the past several years," said Cathy Asato, Metro spokeswoman. "We will continue to evaluate new technologies to see if there are ways to improve."
