Nova CNG buses will arrive in 2016
The City of Hamilton, Ontario and natural gas transmission and distribution company Union Gas have marked the completion of a new compressed natural gas (CNG) fuel station at the Mountain Transit Centre that will fuel the City’s new fleet of natural gas buses. The City instigated the transition to CNG in 2014 due to the volatile costs of diesel fuel.
The new station has the capacity to allow the City’s fleet of natural gas buses to grow from the current complement of 35 to a total of 120 vehicles over the next six years. The projected cost savings of this initiative is about CAD 40 million (USD 30m) over the next 20 years. The project is also expected to reduce greenhouse gas emissions over this period by about 25 per cent – or 86 kilo-tons of CO2 – which is equivalent to removing 18,105 passenger cars from the road.
“This rewarding partnership with Union Gas has tremendous economic and environmental benefits to our community,” said Mayor Fred Eisenberger. “Not only will the City save millions of dollars over the next 20 years by converting part of our transit fleet to CNG, we will also move closer to our corporate target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 80 per cent by 2050.”
Union Gas built the CNG facility and will also own and maintain it. Natural gas prices are lower today than 10 years ago and natural gas also produces up to 25 per cent fewer greenhouse gas emissions compared with diesel or gasoline, and almost no sulphur dioxide or particular matter.
The first 18 60-foot articulated heavy-duty 60-foot Xcelsior® CNG buses manufactured by New Flyer arrived this summer thanks to funding from the federal Gas Tax Fund. More buses are expected in the first part of 2016 which will include 24 40-foot CNG Nova buses. The City plans to replace about 18 buses per year with CNG until 2020.
Nova Bus is part of the Volvo Group. The 41-seat 75-passenger Nova Bus LFS Natural Gas model stores CNG in 9 Type 3 or Type 4 cylinders on the roof of the bus and comes with 20-year tank certification. A Cummins ISL-G 280 HP engine delivers power and is certified to zone 1 , EPA 2013.
(Source: City of Hamilton)
