Sun Tran, the public transportation operator in and around Tucson, Ariz., is set to deploy 24 new buses that run on compressed natural gas (CNG), updating an existing fleet of CNG buses that has been in operation for more than a decade.
These full-size, low-floor Gillig Corp. buses feature the latest natural gas engine technology, ‘which produce[s] lower emissions than standard-fueled vehicles and older CNG vehicles,’ the agency says. Each bus will cost about $510,000, with funding from the City of Tucson, the Regional Transportation Authority and the Federal Transit Administration.
Sun Tran says the majority of the new buses will be placed into service by the end of this summer, and that all of the NGVs will be deployed by January 2015.
Sun Tran and the City of Tucson began using alternative fuels in 1987, with the conversion of a GMC bus to use both CNG and diesel. By 1997, half of the fleet used CNG, and in 2005, biodiesel fuel was introduced.
