Audio story by Annika Cline
The City of Phoenix approved the purchase of 120 new Valley Metro buses that will run on compressed natural gas, replacing about 25 percent of liquefied natural gas buses currently in use.
Starting in November, the city will slowly begin phasing in the new buses at a rate of four to six per week, said Jesus Sapien, deputy public transit director for the City of Phoenix. Passengers may not notice the difference, but it’s what is inside the tank that counts and Sapien says it counts for a lot.
The compressed natural gas, or CNG, buses will initially cost $61 million, Sapien said, but will be more cost-effective than their liquefied natural gas, LNG, counterparts. Other alternative fuel options, such as propane or hydrogen, would have been even more expensive, adding up to as much as $200,000 more per bus.
Phoenix resident Kahleel Jackson hopes the long-term savings will translate to savings for bus riders. A regular bus rider himself, Jackson said he travels from downtown’s Central Station to 19th Avenue on a daily basis.
“These big machines run on a lot of gas,” Jackson said. “I know it takes more than a Hummer does, I’ll tell you that. If they had cheaper gas then everything would be cheaper.”
While it is unclear how the savings on gas will affect passengers, it is clear that CNG is more environmentally-friendly than LNG or diesel. Sapien said this is due to the fueling method. CNG buses are fueled via a pipeline system, whereas LNG must be trucked in to the city.
This is not immediately achievable, however. Gregg Duckett, public works operations manager, said the new pipeline and CNG fueling station will take a while to build.
“It will not be cost effective to build a CNG fuel site until there are enough CNG buses in use to fully utilize it,” Duckett said via email.
Duckett said Southwest Gas, the current provider of natural gas to the city, “feels their current pipeline serving the Lower Buckeye Road bus yard is insufficient and a new larger pipeline will need to be installed.”
Until the new CNG fuel site and pipeline are built, LNG will continue to be trucked in and simply compressed from liquefied to compressed natural gas, Sapien said.
All of the new buses will be running by spring of next year, but it will take a while longer than that for LNG buses to be entirely replaced and the conversion completed.
Contact the reporter at ascline1@asu.edu
