By Tom Jordan
The MTA/Long Island Bus Company is living up to its promise to reduce air pollution in the region. During an open house held at the LI Bus Depot in Rockville Centre on September 7, the company announced the purchase of 71 new vehicles that will run on natural gas; bringing its total of 'environmentally friendly' buses to 244. Last September, the conversion to natural gas began when the company purchased 173 natural gas buses from Orion Industries.
In accordance with their plan to replace all diesel-burning buses within the next three years, approximately three-quarters of LI Bus' entire fleet of 326, now runs on cleaner-burning fuel which reduces particulate emissions to near zero. The gas consists mostly of compressed methane and will be provided by KeySpan Energy Corporation. Natural gas burns cleaner than its diesel counterpart, and diffuses rapidly into the air according to reports by LI Bus.
A 1993 comparison between vehicles running on diesel fuel and natural gas "exceeded preliminary expectations," said a representative of LI Bus. "Natural gas vehicles outperformed diesel significantly."
While the new buses are more expensive to purchase (they're sold for about $320,000 per bus, as compared to $306,00 previously) and to operate (on average 21 cents per mile), if full conversion is completed on schedule, LI Bus will have the first fleet of buses in the United States to be fueled solely by natural gas, according to Nassau County Executive Thomas S. Gulotta. Funding for the buses is provided by the Federal Transit Administration, New York State and Nassau County.
The event also marked the completion of a project to convert the Rockville Centre depot, located at 50 Banks Avenue, to an all natural gas facility. The station will now fuel all buses in Nassau, eastern Queens and western Suffolk counties.
"Through the continued efforts of our state, county and federal partners, LI Bus plays a major role in Long Island's economy, takes cars off the road, reducing traffic congestion, and helps to protect the air we breathe," said MTA/Long Island Bus president Neil Yellin.
LI Bus serves more than 30 million riders annually, and carried a record-setting average of 103,000 passengers per weekday in July, providing service to Queens, Nassau and Suffolk Counties.
Due to Nassau's fiscal situation, LI Bus faced serious subsidy reductions that would have caused a 40 percent reduction in service, including the elimination of 23 routes and reduced service on 24 others, until additional state funding was secured last spring. The September 7 open house was held, in part, to show appreciation to state and county legislators who worked to maintain the operations without any service reductions. Among those present were Senators Dean Skelos, Caesar Trunzo and Charles Fuschillo; Mayor Eugene Murray; Assemblyman Thomas DiNapoli; and Nassau County Legislator Judith Jacobs.
