Consortium of western states Orders 157 GM Hybrid-Powered Buses

[philb]

Consortium Orders 157 GM Hybrid-Powered Buses
DETROIT, Jan 17, 2006 /PRNewswire
A hybrid bus consortium consisting of 11 transit agencies in California, Nevada and New Mexico has awarded a contract to Gillig Corp. for the purchase of up to 157 diesel-electric hybrid buses powered by General Motors' advanced hybrid propulsion system.
The purchase contract is the second largest since GM's hybrid diesel- electric system debuted in 2003 and was spearheaded by the San Joaquin Regional Transit District (RTD) in California. San Joaquin RTD formed the consortium with other transit agencies to boost purchasing power and reduce per-vehicle costs through mass ordering. San Joaquin RTD plans on buying 50 hybrid buses, while the remaining 107 buses will be available for other consortium members.
"Our Board of Directors' commitment to the diesel fuel path led San Joaquin RTD to purchase two GM hybrid-powered buses manufactured by Gillig in June 2004," said Bobby Kuhn, director of maintenance for San Joaquin RTD. "Since that time, we have experienced firsthand the reductions in fuel consumption, noise levels and emissions offered by this technology. These fantastic results convinced us to purchase additional buses, and to share our experience with GM's hybrid bus propulsion system with other transit agencies. The interest in acquiring the fuel-saving technology was amazing, so a purchasing consortium was formed."
Joining San Joaquin RTD in the hybrid bus consortium are the following California transit agencies: Benicia Transit, Fairfield/Suisun Transit, Golden Gate Transit, Humboldt Transit Authority, Livermore Amador Valley Transit Authority (LAVTA), Monterey-Salinas Transit, SamTrans (San Mateo County), and Santa Barbara MTD. Citifare of Reno/Sparks, Nev. and ABQ RIDE in Albuquerque, N.M. also joined the consortium. Deliveries will begin in mid-2006 and conclude in late 2007.
"These hybrid buses will help San Joaquin RTD and other consortium members realize significant fuel cost savings by using diesel-electric hybrid systems," said Donna Kelsay, San Joaquin RTD's GM and CEO. "They also will help us fulfill our overall mission to significantly minimize air emissions, which in turn reduces the environmental impact to our region's land and water."
The California consortium members are purchasing hybrid diesel-electric technology in part to help meet California's stringent clean-air requirements for urban buses. The GM hybrid system provides transit agencies the option of a clean-air technology solution that has been reviewed and certified by the California Air Resources Board (CARB).
Transit buses with GM's hybrid propulsion system deliver significantly better fuel economy than traditional transit buses, cut certain emissions up to 90 percent and have operating sound levels approaching that of passenger cars. Other benefits of the GM hybrid system include reduced maintenance costs resulting from extended brake, engine oil and transmission oil life, superior torque, and better acceleration.

[Oerdin]

1. Electric buses would be better.

Cities like Seattle have already switched to electric buses which don't produce any green house gases on their own. Hybrids still produce green house gases and so, while helping, global warming remains a problem. Buses are nearly ideal for the use of electric motors since they don't go fast, have short predictable routes, and they site in yards over night where they can recharge. Since this is one of the few automotive applications where electric motors would actually work well wouldn't it be better to switch over to electric power? Especially if the electricity was generated by nongreen house gas producing power plants.

[philb]

2. Either are better than diesel buses; which cause signif. pollution

and are less efficient than hybrids or fuel cell enegines;
Since most electrical generating plants are about 40% efficient, I don't know how electrics fit into such
comparisons.

[Massacure]

3. Just because it is hybrid doesn't exclude it from being diesel.

[skids]

4. diesel hybrid are much cleaner than standard diesel.

Restricting the operational range of the diesel engine allows fine-tuning to virtually eliminate NoX.

It would be nice if there were diesel hybrid cars for U.S. sale, but there won't be until the sulfur standards are tightened, due to high cost/weight for the scrubbers (because hybrids compete in the PZEV buyers market, not the vanilla high-mileage market) until that happens. Likely, with the cronycrats in charge they will wait until it is due to happen, and then find a way to reneg.

[Odin2005]

5. Electric trollys powerd by juice from nuclear or renewable energy ...

...sources would be even better.