In a video getting interest on You Tube, Metro’s CEO Art Leahy said the transportation agency with the “largest clean air fleet in the nation” will make a clean and completely green start in the new year when the last remaining 14 diesel buses in the fleet of more than 2,500 will retire.
Leahy talks up Metro’s clean public transportation systems and other improvements underway in “AQMD On the Air,” a video produced by South Coast Air Quality Management District and posted on YouTube. The AQMD online program highlights agencies who have demonstrated a strong commitment to improving air quality and the difference they have made in helping clear the air we breathe.
Categories: Projects, Transportation News
Dana, side facing seats by the rear door improves circulation. Maybe the success of these buses will make that feature spread to further orders
Joe, the contracted fleet is slated to be replaced soon w/CNG low floor 32 foot buses.
http://www.metro.net/news/simple_pr/stimulus/
The 14 diesel buses Leahy speaks of are the 3000s. These were the first low floor buses Metro acquired and the last diesels it bought. Then CEO Julian Burke was scouring the country for any equipment to help relieve overcrowding per the consent decree. Normally it take 24-36 months for delivery of new buses once they are ordered due to buy America requirements of federal funding normally used for capital acquisitions but in this case Burke came upon an order of 20 buses about to be delivered made by a company that had the contract to operate service in Las Vegas but before delivery the company lost the contract and thus no longer needed the buses. Burke negotiated a deal to buy these buses and thus acquire them without the usual lag. They have some unusual features like sideway facing seats opposite the back door (evidently one downside of buying a bus someone else did the specs of is we had to accept the design as the folk who originally ordered it arranged it).
What about the leaking a/c om the subway trains using from 200 to 500 lbs. of freon a month. is this part of AQMD
[…] Metro Promises to Get Rid of 14 Remaining Diesel Buses in 2011 (The Source) […]
What about Metro’s fleet of diesel buses that are under contracted divisions?