THOUGHT LEADER
A Tale of Two Transitions
The switch to CNG in India over two decades ago is similar to the path being taken by today’s electric school bus movement in the U.S. Written By Shivapriya Balasubramanian
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n 1998, the Supreme Court of India, in response to a public interest litigation, ordered the capital of Delhi’s diesel bus fleet to be transitioned to run on compressed natural gas (CNG) by March 2001.
It was a landmark order that also encompassed other directives to improve the air quality in Delhi, which suffered one of the worst air qualities in the world. This conversion which was only completed in 2003-2004, after implementation issues were overcome, is estimated to have reduced the pollutants and particulate matter in Delhi air significantly. Though not the same, the present contemplation
between diesel- or gasoline-powered buses and elec- tric buses in the U.S. and the past deliberations between diesel and CNG buses have similarities. CNG buses were between 20- and 200-percent more expensive than diesel buses in terms of upfront costs in 2000, and at present electric buses are estimated to cost one-and- a-half to four times the price of diesel buses. Though the upfront costs were significant, the cost of CNG fuel
itself was lower compared to diesel. Electric buses are also estimated to have lower operating expenditure than diesel buses. There were also questions on the pace of change and the lack of sufficient CNG fueling stations in Delhi at the time. This is very much an issue for electric vehicle owners in the U.S. currently. The 1998 order in India was triggered by concerns about the deteriorating air quality in Delhi. The current transportation landscape in the U.S. is being shaped by both concerns about climate change as well as drastic price declines in batteries. But perhaps the biggest parallel is that the 1998
order benefitted Delhi’s working class—people who didn’t own cars and worked outside of air-conditioned offices (which provided better air quality). A move to electric buses in the U.S. would undoubtedly help a disadvantaged section of the population (about 5 percent of U.S. workers, or 3.6 million people, use buses as their primary mode of commute). However, there is another subset of the population that stands to gain enormously with electric buses (as it did with the move to CNG)—pre-high school students. The U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics states that over half of pre- high school students (approximately 10 million children) ride the bus to school, emissions from which impact student health. The school bus system at 480,000 buses dwarves the public transit bus system, which numbers approximately 96,000 buses. In the recent months, several school
districts (such as in Philadelphia, Phoenix, Arlington, Virginia, Anaheim, California, and Los Angeles) have added electric school buses to their fleets. Some districts have had the benefits of state grants to finance the purchase. This is good prog- ress, but most of the initiatives have so far been concentrated on the coasts.
16 School Transportation News • JANUARY 2022
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