Cummins Westport Inc. has confirmed that its 8.9-liter ISL G natural gas engine will power a pair of massive transit-fleet natural gas vehicle deployments: one for the San Diego Metropolitan Transit System and another for LA Metro.
LA Metro has ordered 550 New Flyer Xcelsior natural gas buses, and plans call for these units to be rolled out in 2014 and 2015. LA Metro also has an option to purchase an additional 350 buses in 2016 for both its own fleet and for contract operators.
The San Diego Metropolitan Transit System (SDMTS) is buying up to 350 Gillig 40-foot low-floor buses and 118 New Flyer 60-foot low-floor articulated buses. SDMTS will receive 47 articulated buses and 50 40-foot buses in 2013, with another 50 per year being delivered to replace buses in the current compressed natural gas (CNG) fleet over the following four years.
‘There are more than 1,500 natural gas buses in our fleet running on Cummins Westport engines,’ says John Drayton, LA Metro's manager for vehicle technology. ‘LA Metro is dedicated to being 100 percent natural gas, and Cummins Westport is a valued partner in that.’
Julio Ortiz, SDMTS' director of maintenance, notes that 80% of its fleet currently runs on CNG vehicles – most of them powered by Cummins Westport engines.
The ISL G, a stoichiometric cooled-exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) engine, is certified to 2010 EPA emissions standards. It is manufactured in the Cummins Engine Plant in Rocky Mount, N.C.
