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hree of Citizens Area Transit's seven new natural-gas powered buses -- with the words "CLEAN AIR AFFAIR" written in big letters on their sides, await their unveiling. One way of distinguishing the buses from their diesel-fueled counterparts is the long natural gas fuel tank on their roofs. Photo by Clint Karlsen.

Thursday, January 03, 2002
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

Natural gas-powered buses to make debut

Citizens Area Transit's first natural gas-powered buses will make their public debut this morning, launching an experiment that eventually could lead to a transit system completely powered by the clean-burning fuel.

The seven 40-foot CAT buses immediately will improve the air quality and fuel efficiency of the transit fleet, officials said.

"As we bought new buses, we wanted to get whatever we could that would have the lowest emissions and highest efficiency," said Transportation Commission spokeswoman Ingrid Reisman. "We believe it (natural gas) has proven itself to be effective, and that's why we're using it."

At $356,620 each, the natural gas buses are more expensive than diesel-powered buses. The Transportation Commission paid $268,265 a vehicle the last time the agency purchased diesel buses, though that was four years ago and the agency received a price break for buying 60 buses.

Federal money covered 80 percent of the cost of the new buses. The remaining 20 percent is coming from CAT's annual budget.

But officials expect higher initial costs will be offset by savings on operating and maintenance costs.

Fuel costs should be lower, Reisman said. CAT is paying 68 cents a gallon for natural gas and 65 cents a gallon for diesel, but natural gas typically has been much cheaper than diesel. In the past eight years, diesel has averaged 97 cents a gallon and natural gas has averaged 67 cents.

Dan Hyde, fleet manager for the city of Las Vegas, which operates six natural gas buses, said CAT should find the cost of maintaining the buses is lower.

"It has lower maintenance costs because it (the fuel) burns cleaner," Hyde said.

But the clean-burning fuel's lower emissions are the biggest benefit, officials said. Natural gas burns 87 percent cleaner than diesel, and produces no particulate pollution.

"Diesel is a filthy fuel," Hyde said. "It's heavy in particulates, the visible soot that comes off the smokestacks."

Those particles, designated as toxic air contaminants in California, are known to exacerbate respiratory problems in segments of the population.

The natural gas-powered buses also produce 90 percent less carbon monoxide than conventional buses. Carbon monoxide is the main pollutant produced by automobiles in the Las Vegas Valley.

The Transportation Commission is already operator of Southern Nevada's largest fleet of natural gas-powered vehicles. All 176 vehicles used to provide CAT's Paratransit service, the transit system serving disabled individuals physically unable to ride fixed-route buses, operate on natural gas.

Officials said they will be evaluating the performance of the seven buses in the valley's punishing heat and stop-and-go conditions with an eye on using them to replace the system's aging diesel buses.

"It's possible that we would switch our fleet to compressed natural gas," Reisman said. "We want to see how well these operate."

If the city's experience with its natural gas buses is any indication, Hyde believes it will be a success.

"The performance is better than we expected, driver acceptance has been good, passenger acceptance has been very good," he said. "There have been a lot of positives, and I don't really see a lot of negatives.