A private collection of material focusing on the never ending joys of the Trimet industrial complex-Follow the Twitter feed for complete coverage and trimet scanner calls
https://twitter.com/AlYourPalster
Trimess
Monday, May 9, 2011
Getting There: Hybrid buses are worth the extra cost upfront
But unlike the Mr. Rose of Portland, not anti-bus...
I wish, though, the article actually talked about the reasons why hybrid buses are cheaper over the long run - lower maintenance costs (no transmission, lower brake wear), lower operating costs (lower fuel consumption), and of course the positive environmental aspects (lower fuel consumption, lower pollution).
That said, Seattle has done some very good studies on the cost-effectiveness of hybrid buses which pointed out two things:
1. It's a really stupid idea to put your hybrid buses on I-90 and I-5 express routes, which is what Seattle did initially. Doing this didn't help fuel consumption at all compared to conventional buses. When KCM moved the DE60LFs to more conventional routes, the promised results materialized.
2. Seattle found only tiny benefits with the 40' buses and not much to really consider hybrid buses for the smaller vehicles, but that with a 60' bus the advantages were clear-cut. However, with KCM's most recent bus purchase (from Orion Bus, a company owned by Portland's Daimler Trucks North America and a company TriMet has never purchased a bus from, however Pierce Transit and Cherriots have) they will start to purchase 40' hybrids.
1 comment:
But unlike the Mr. Rose of Portland, not anti-bus...
I wish, though, the article actually talked about the reasons why hybrid buses are cheaper over the long run - lower maintenance costs (no transmission, lower brake wear), lower operating costs (lower fuel consumption), and of course the positive environmental aspects (lower fuel consumption, lower pollution).
That said, Seattle has done some very good studies on the cost-effectiveness of hybrid buses which pointed out two things:
1. It's a really stupid idea to put your hybrid buses on I-90 and I-5 express routes, which is what Seattle did initially. Doing this didn't help fuel consumption at all compared to conventional buses. When KCM moved the DE60LFs to more conventional routes, the promised results materialized.
2. Seattle found only tiny benefits with the 40' buses and not much to really consider hybrid buses for the smaller vehicles, but that with a 60' bus the advantages were clear-cut. However, with KCM's most recent bus purchase (from Orion Bus, a company owned by Portland's Daimler Trucks North America and a company TriMet has never purchased a bus from, however Pierce Transit and Cherriots have) they will start to purchase 40' hybrids.
Post a Comment