New OCTA Bus Takes Hybrid Route

A high-tech passenger bus hailed as the transportation wave of the future was unveiled Thursday in Santa Ana as the first of its kind to be used commercially on the West Coast.

Called a hybrid-electric bus, the vehicle uses a diesel engine to generate electricity and an electric motor to power the drive train. Regulated by computers, the motor uses power stored in batteries or directly from the generator.

The system sharply reduces fuel consumption and the emission of pollutants.

Eventually, every transit agency in Southern California plans to use fleets of similar buses. The Orange County Transportation Authority will put it into service Monday.

A second hybrid bus is expected to start service by the end of the month, OCTA spokesman George Urch said.

The bus was built by auto makers in partnership with the South Coast Air Quality Management District, prompting William Burke, chairman of the pollution-regulating agency, to quip, “Twenty years ago, could you imagine in your wildest dreams AQMD partnering up with an auto manufacturer?”

OCTA officials said the bus displayed Thursday has 2,000 miles of road testing behind it and will be used on Route 43, which runs down Harbor Boulevard from Fullerton to Costa Mesa, as well as on other routes. It is 40 feet long and has a low floor for easy access.

The vehicle’s propulsion system was built by General Motors and its subsidiary Allison Transmission. New Flyer of America built the chassis.

General Motors vice president Dennis Minano said that if the nation’s 13,000 transit buses were replaced by the hybrid model, it would result in savings of 40 million gallons of diesel fuel a year. OCTA uses about 6 million gallons per year.

The engine is a 5.9-liter model, slightly bigger than one used in U.S.-built, high-performance cars but about half the size of those used in conventional buses, officials said.

Minano and others said the new engine’s biggest asset is that it is clean-running. It reduces particle emissions by 90% and nitrogen oxide by 50%.

This is especially helpful to riders who rely on buses for transportation, Burke said.

“These are mostly people of low income or minority residents who rely heavily on buses,” he said. “Just waiting at a bus stop can result in watery eyes and lungs heavy with pollutants from diesel exhaust.”

Kristi Munns, spokeswoman for the American Lung Assn. of Orange County, said the group also favors the new bus.

“You don’t even have to ride a bus or spend time at a bus stop to be affected by diesel,” she said. “All you have to do is walk outside to be affected.”

According to Burke, the California Resources Board has made $12.5 million available to school districts across the state to replace conventional diesel-burning buses with vehicles that use alternative fuel technology, including hybrid-electric.

OCTA officials said the hybrid bus cost $400,000 compared with $350,000 for a conventional bus, but that cost is expected to drop when it is mass-produced.