USA, Visalia CA

The town of Visalia, California recently added three new compressed natural gas (CNG) trolleys to its public transit fleet for its downtown free bus loop service.  They are part of an effort by city officials to put more cleaner-burning transit vehicles onto the streets, lessening the impact on the area's poor air quality. The trolleys replaced older diesel trolleys. "Compressed natural gas has many benefits -- it's about five times cleaner and it's cheaper," said Monty Cox, city transit manager.  He said prices for CNG are about $1 per gallon less than gasoline or diesel. While prices for those fuels are expected to rise during the summer months, Cox said, CNG prices usually go down in the summer because the need for heating goes down. The city has its own CNG fueling station. 

The CNG trolleys join a fleet of other greener CNG vehicles in Visalia's transit fleet. In May, conversion of the city's 11-bus Dial-A-Ride fleet to 100 percent alternative fuel will be completed with the purchase of six new buses. Also in May, the city expects a delivery of 10 new large, fixed-route CNG buses.  With that delivery, almost two-thirds of the city's large buses will be powered by CNG.