As has been reported elsewhere, Metro will buy up to 500 hybrid buses as a result of Transit Now! passing. These buses will be required to run through the transit tunnel, where the old, bus-trolley system was removed for the light-rails trolley system. By trolley system I mean the wires on top of the bus from which they get power.
Orphan Road pointed out that the fuel savings never materialized for the hybrid buses, but they are more reliable, require less servicing and break down less often than conventional buses. So while the hybrids cost about $200k more than normal buses ($718K vs $520K), “[t]he hybrid fleet as a whole is saving $3 million a year in maintenance costs over the [dual-mode] Bredas.”
This press release says, “Metro’s goal is to get up to 50,000 drivers out of their cars and riding buses by 2016.” Pretty cool, but I think trains could take another 100,000 out.
I am glad to see this blog, you will be getting lots of replies from me. So I am really glad to see that we are purchasing more Hybrid buses. It should pay off in the long run. They are so nice to ride. The buses we have now that are hybrid are pretty sleek. I like that Seattle is taking initiative in this area. I know that we get dogged on because we don’t have light rail. At least we are starting to show that we think about our future here.