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Going Green


Local school district embraces conversion to CNG school buses


T


his past summer, the North Kansas City School District acquired 110 compressed natural gas (CNG) school buses, in what was the largest single conversion to CNG in the country.


“We are excited to be the first school district in the country to incorporate Type C compressed natural gas school buses into our fleet,” said Lon Waterman, the NKCSD transporta- tion director at the time. But the decision to convert to the alternative fuel was not


one that was taken lightly. In fact, Waterman told STN the conversion had been two years in the making. “Te conversation started about two years ago when diesel fuel was so volatile, and a combination of other things, like high maintenance costs. So we were talking, the superintendent and I, trying to figure out what we could do differently. We didn’t have a defined replacement cycle,” he said, adding that in recent years, the district had built green initiative buildings. Te district had an aging fleet, with the average bus age being 12 years, with some as old as 18, and wanted to replace these for new buses. Because of the green initiative buildings, the board of education wanted to continue in this environ- mentally-friendly trajectory and explore clean energy options for school buses. Tat’s what initially set the course for the CNG conversion. Te district put out an RFP and eventually chose Tomas Built Buses’ new CNG-run Saf-T-Liner C2, the industry’s first conventional school bus to run on CNG. “Tomas just met our needs," Waterman said. "We went out with an RFP and we had specific things that we wanted in the RFP, and Tomas was able to meet those particular needs."


14 THE SHOW REPORTER • NOVEMBER 4–8, 2016


While many school districts take advantage of grants and subsidies for alternative fuel bus conversions, NKCSD took on the costs of the buses, fueling infrastructure and shop improve- ments through financing from Daimler Truck Financial. “We did a combination of leases and lease-purchases. We have 60 of our units and we can go to 90 on 3-year, short-term leases and the rest of our fleet is lease-purchase and that’s how we create our replacement cycle within our fleet,” said Waterman. Now that the CNG buses have been in use for a few months,


Waterman said that the difference between these and the older diesel buses the district was using, is readily noticeable. “Te reliability is much greater," he added. "We don’t have the


downtime, we don’t have the service time. We were chasing bus- es, because everything has a shelf life, and things break down. Buses break down, kids are missing out on instructional time. We just don’t have that now and it’s a wonderful thing.” He also said that the reduced noise level and decreased fuel


costs are also big advantages, and that the drivers love driving new buses. Further, because all of the new buses are under a 3-year, bumper-to-bumper warranty, the district is saving money in maintenance costs. Because NKCSD has only had the buses for a few months, it is too early to tell just what the numbers look like in terms of fuel economy. “We’re collecting all this data and working with Tomas Built Buses and Cummins Engine to just really gather all the infor- mation, look at the data, and look at what we have as it relates to mileage and fuel economy,” Waterman said. And while the district’s experience with CNG buses is still


new, Waterman is already looking ahead to the future. “We are currently in the process of doing a cooperative


partnership with the city of Kansas City to use our facility, to fast-fill their maintenance vehicles,” he said. “Tere is currently a conversation about what we can do further with a partnership in the northernmost part of our district, working with the coun- ty, the city and possibly other school districts in that area and writing a grant and moving forward. Tat’s probably a couple years out, but yeah, we’re moving forward with the CNG.” l


Dozens of North Kansas City School Districts CNG buses fuel using a time-fill application.


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