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| NJ Transit board approves $57 million to buy new MCI D4500 CNG buses (283926) | |||
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NJ Transit board approves $57 million to buy new MCI D4500 CNG buses |
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Posted by Gold_12th on Thu Sep 12 20:15:17 2013 New compressed natural gas-fueled buses will start plying the Route 9 corridor after NJ Transit’s board approved spending $58 million to purchase 84 new cruiser style commuter buses.The purchase of the buses from Motor Coach Industries, approved Thursday by NJ Transit’s board, foreshadows an eventual replacement of NJ Transit’s aging fleet of commuter buses. On the average the buses are 12 years old and have half a million miles on individual buses, said Joyce Gallagher, NJ Transit vice president and general manager of bus operations. The first of the new buses will be delivered in the third quarter of 2014 and continue until Dec. 2015, she said. “Our entire fleet of over 1,000 (cruiser) buses are coming of age. They were purchased in 1999, 2000 and 2002; they’re coming of age,” she said. The compressed natural gas fueled buses are the first to be replaced because the certification on their fuel tanks expire in the next year and a half, she said. Those federal Department of Transportation tank certifications are good for 15 years. “They are at the end of their useful lives,” said James Weinstein, NJ Transit executive director. Purchase of the compressed natural gas-fueled buses is being funded by a federal stimulus grant specifically to fund the purchase of CNG buses, Weinstein said. The new buses will have fuel tanks certified for 20 years from the date the bus is built. Cruiser buses are generally used on NJ Transit’s longer-distance commuter routes to New York and Philadelphia, Gallagher said. The compressed natural gas buses will run out of the Howell bus garage, which is the only natural gas-fueling facility and be used on the Route 9 corridor, she said. “They’re pretty much the same as what we have now, 57 seats with user amenities such as air conditioning, reclining seats, Clever devices (technology for NJ Transit real time my bus information),” she said. “We’re very excited to do this.” NJ Transits board also approved $12.5 million design contract to design a “mid-line loop” track on the Northeast Corridor line near the County Line train yard south of the Jersey Avenue, New Brunswick station. The track could save $10 million a year in labor, equipment and other costs to “deadhead” empty trains, Weinstein said. Deadheading is running an empty train south to get equipment from the Trenton bound side of the corridor to the New York Bound side. The loop track would allow this to happen without crossing the corridor, including the high speed Amtrak express tracks. The board also approved a $1.89 million contract with John O’Hara Company of East Orange to restore and sanitize the Hoboken terminal waiting room which was flooded with polluted storm water driven by superstorm Sandy in to the station. The contract has a $300,000 bonus for the contract of they finish the job before Thanksgiving in order to have the station ready for February’s Superbowl, Weinstein said. http://www.app.com/article/20130912/NJNEWS/309120159/NJ-Transit-board-approves-57-million-buy-new-buses?nclick_check=1 |
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