 A follow up on the HART Board recap in which there was discussion on Compressed Natural Gas (CNG).
The U.S. Department
of Transportation announced Thursday that HART is the recipient of a
$2.3 million grant to fund a CNG fueling
station and associated modifications to an existing HART maintenance
facility. This is the first step for HART towards transitioning vans and
buses from using diesel to CNG, which is cleaner and more efficient to
use in public transit.
"Natural gas offers
a cost-effective alternative to diesel fuel," said Philip Hale, HART
Chief Executive Officer. "Natural gas is available domestically and at
this time, costs approximately 20-25 percent less than diesel."
The preliminary project timeline includes design and construction through 2012, and an operational CNG fueling station in 2013.
According to the
U.S. Department of Transportation - Federal Transit Administration
(FTA), HART is one of 46 innovative clean-fuel transit projects
nationwide that will share $112 million in funding from two FTA
programs: the Clean Fuels Grant Program and the TIGGER III (Transit
Investment in Greenhouse Gas and Energy Reduction) Grant Program.
To view a summary of other HART capital projects underway, visit HART at Work.
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Natural gas is a
clear, odorless and non-corrosive gaseous mixture of
hydro-carbons. Natural gas vehicles show an average reduction
in ozone-forming emissions of 80 percent compared to gasoline vehicles,
according to a report from the California Energy Commission. Many
transit agencies nationwide are transitioning to CNG vehicles, including
DART (Dallas Area Rapid Transit), which plans over the next three years
to deploy more than 650 new CNG buses and paratransit vehicles as
replacements for its current fleet of buses that began service in 1998.
In addition, LA Metro (Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation
Authority) retired its last diesel bus in January 2011.
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