Lextran will be upping its compressed natural gas and hybrid-electric vehicle numbers over the next two years. The state awarded more than $11 million in federal pass-through dollars to projects in five counties. Fred Combs is the director of planning, technology, and community relations with Lextran. Combs said replacing diesel with CNG provides air quality benefits. He said this program doesn’t get into the ridership aspect.
“The better our service looks, the newer vehicles, we hope to attract more riders and get people out of their cars and onto buses. There is an additional air quality benefit there, but this program only looks at the specific emissions, based on swapping the engines out,” said Combs.
The Lexington mass transit system has been moving forward with increased CNG and hybrid electric for several years. And the percentage changes for the entire fleet.
“Currently the composition of our fleet, we have, and this is on the fixed route side, we have six hybrid-electric vehicles, eight battery electric vehicles, 22 CNG-S, and then 37 diesel. So, of those 37, we would be replacing the four,” said Combs.
Combs noted it could be close to two years before four new compressed natural gas and six other hybrid-electric paratransit vehicles arrive. But, he added other already purchased vehicles should come onto the fleet before then.
