“We won some grants and elected to phase in the CNG buses
in five phases over five years,” he said. “Our plan is to purchase 25 buses a year, but the plan is flexible. We can change it as we go.” Cowling said the phase-in plan was developed to avoid replac- ing large numbers of buses at the same time. He said the district currently has 25 CNG buses in a fleet of 144 and is entering phase two. “We love the new buses and they’re inexpensive to operate…the fuel price is extremely low compared to diesel,” Cowling said. “It’s environmentally friendly and the bus is quiet, so the kids don’t have to raise their voices as much to be heard. Tat’s good for the driver.” He said grants from the U.S. Department of Transportation and the EPA helped pay for the increased costs associated with the CNG infrastructure. Not everyone is enamored with the prospect of alternative fuels.
Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District Transportation Direc- tor Neal Abramson said his district has had CNG buses since 1998, when the state’s Air Resources Board began mandating the fuel.
renewable diesel. Te district is considered to be the only one in the nation with a 100-percent renewable diesel fleet. Andrew DeBolt, lead equipment mechanic for San Jose Uni- fied, said the switch was made because of cost and a deteriorating CNG infrastructure. “Te fueling station on site was old and we did not own it,” he explained. “Te company that did own it wanted a sizeable contribution to upgrade it.” DeBolt agreed with Abramson and Gayaldo about the limited dependability of the CNG network. “Te old system was unreli- able and it was always down,” he said. “Unlike our counterparts in Southern California, natural gas is not as prevalent in Northern California. Even our local transit authority stopped using CNG.” DeBolt also said the district did not meet the code require- ments for a natural gas repair facility and would have had to spend upwards to $500,000 to change the ventilation, lighting and heating system to comply with regulations. DeBolt said the allure for renewable diesel is that it is similar to regular diesel but with a much lower level of particulate matter
The eLion all-electric school bus from Quebec’s Lion Bus is one of two currently available solutions to student transporters (the Trans Tech Type A being the other). Industry insiders indicate that ongoing electric infrastructure and battery development—and a forecasted drop in incremental vehicle purchase price as a result—could make the zero-emissions vehicles a more viable option school bus operators in another 10 years.
Santa Monica also operates gasoline and diesel buses in a fleet of 25. Abramson said the CNG buses are costly because their fuel tanks expire after 15 years and must be replaced at a cost of $20,000 per bus. He said CNG is difficult to obtain and there are no local propane fueling stations. He is also underwhelmed with CNG performance. “Tey don’t handle the hills very well and they get poor mileage,” he said. “I have the newer models and they’re not much better. Wherever we go, I have to call ahead to make sure that if there is a CNG pump, that it is working.” He added the CNG maintenance costs more because of the sensors and filters. Jill Gayaldo, transportation director for the Elk Grove Unified School District in northern California has used CNG buses since the late 1980s, but she said the district is phasing them out because of the cost and availability of the fuel. “CNG buses have been workhorses, but the cost of the fueling stations are just too expen- sive and fueling stations are limited,” she said, adding that any local fueling stations are often inoperable. She also lamented the need replace the CNG fuel tanks on the buses. “I have six buses with expired fuel tanks that are out of service,” she said. “I’m looking at a bill of $120,000. My local air district has been helping us out and they might now, but mean- while they are parked.”
SILICON VALLEY START-UP Since the early 1990s, CNG buses comprised half the 103- bus fleet for the San Jose Unified School District. Tis district recently parted ways with its CNG buses and replaced them with
36 School Transportation News • APRIL 2017
emissions. Renewable diesel can also be stored underground. “We did not have to change our storage tanks, fuel pumps and dis- penser and we made no modifications to the buses,” he said.“Tra- ditional diesel tends to deteriorate fuel lines and that does not happen with renewable diesel.” He said the district might have considered switching to pro- pane but the CNG buses were still in use and that would have required constructing a third fueling station. “We would have had to decide which system to have parts for and we would have had to train our personnel on a third system,’ he said. “We wanted to simplify training and storage.”
CHARGING INTO THE FUTURE At the recent IC Bus Summit in Chicago, Julie Furber,
executive director for product management and innovation for Cummins, Inc., predicted that in a decade school buses powered by electricity will start to become a viable option. California is so far the leader in electric because of the state’s aggressive grant funding, but states like Massachusetts are gaining ground. Te Concord School District outside of Boston is currently using an electric conventional school bus purchased in October from Lion Bus. Concord is one of four local school districts to receive a $350,000 grant from the Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources to purchase the 71-passenger eLion and its related charging equipment. John Flaherty, deputy superintendent of finance and opera- tions, said the battery pack the district specified gives the bus a range of 75 miles on one charge. Te bus is used for home- to-school travel only. He said the district requested a lift so its
CELEBRATING25YEARS
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