Los Angeles Debuts Natural Gas Bus Fleet
The first of 200 compressed natural gas (CNG) fueled transit buses have been unveiled in Los Angeles.
The Metro Liner bus engines are developed and marketed by Cummins Westport Inc., a joint venture of Cummins Inc., a publicly traded U.S. company, and Westport Innovations Inc., a publicly traded Canadian company.
The low emissions super-sized articulated buses will operate with CWI’s 320-hp L- Gas Plus engines and are part of a previously announced 600 engine order being delivered to the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (LAMTA) from 2005 to 2006.
At 60 feet, the Metro Liner is 20 feet longer than the standard transit bus and seats 57 passengers, 45 percent more than the standard bus.
The new buses will operate on Los Angeles’ busiest bus corridors, and on the Metro Orange Line, a 14 mile transitway due to open in 2005. Unaffected by traffic, Metro Liners will carry passengers to destinations within the San Fernando Valley and throughout Los Angeles County.
“LAMTA operates the largest natural gas transit fleet in the United States,” said Richard Hunt, LAMTA’s general manager for the San Fernando Service Sector.
“We have been testing the Cummins Westport L Gas Plus engine for more than a year, and it has performed flawlessly. By deploying more of this clean engine technology, LAMTA continues to assist in the reduction of harmful emissions in the Southern California region while meeting our commitment to expand our service to Los Angeles stakeholders.”
Two hundred Metro Liner buses with CWI engines, each one costing $633,000, are on order from North American Bus Industries of Anniston, Alabama. Delivery of the first 30 vehicles is scheduled to be completed by June 2005 and the remaining 170 vehicles by June 2006.
LAMTA has about 2,500 buses, over 1,900 of them are CNG buses, making this the largest alternative fuel bus fleet in the United States.
Provided by the Environmental News Service.