PLEASE NOTE: These bulletins, published since 1997, are historical. The content is not updated.
Congratulations to King County Metro Transit for purchasing and road testing a unique, new 60-foot New Flyer articulated hybrid diesel-electric bus. Over the past few months, more than a dozen transit operators drove the hybrid bus 20 hours a day, seven days a week in simulated service*. The remaining four hours each day were used by the maintenance staff at Metro's Central Base for fueling, repairs and scheduled maintenance. "So far, the bus has performed remarkably well." said Todd Gibbs, hybrid bus project manager.
*The simulated service was conducting with containers of water that equaled the weight of a full, standing load of passengers (11,000 lbs.), and the bus accumulated more than a year's worth of mileage (37,600 miles).
Metro currently has three basic types of buses in its fleet: electric trolley buses that travel on overhead wires; diesel buses; and the dual-mode buses that use diesel above ground and overhead wires in the tunnel. The new hybrid would replace these aging dual-mode Breda buses
.Advantages of hybrid diesel-electric buses
:The new bus works much like the small hybrid cars that are becoming popular. In this bus the electricity generated by a computer-managed diesel engine is stored for future use, and reduces fuel consumption. The hybrid bus is also extremely clean, because when it does burn fuel, it uses the ultra low-sulfur diesel Metro uses in all its vehicles. Metro staff expects a 20-30 percent reduction in fuel consumption, and anticipates it will also save money in maintenance and operation costs.
In addition to the economic benefits, the new hybrids are much cleaner to operate
. They reduce the emissions of Particulate Matter (PM), Carbon Monoxide (CO), and Hydrocarbons (HC) by 90 percent over the cleanest diesel buses now in Metro's fleet. In addition, Carbon Dioxide (CO2) is reduced by 40-60 percent and Nitrogen Oxide (NOx) by 50 percent.According to Jim Boon, Vehicle Maintenance Manager for Metro Transit, after the hybrid buses have been tested with real passengers, in March, the new hybrid will undergo even more intense scrutiny. The bus will be disassembled, and the drive system will be thoroughly inspected by staff from Metro and the manufacturer, Allison Transmission. "No bus like this has ever been under this kind of duty before," said Boon. "We want to see how all the internal parts are holding up." If everything looks okay, the bus will be reassembled and put back on the road.
After these tests are completed, Metro will decide if this bus will meet the County's future needs. If so, the made-to-order hybrid fleet of more than 200 hybrid buses would begin arriving at sometime in 2004.
- Read the latest news or background
Tri-Met (Portland, OR) hybrids
Environmental Purchasing Program
The King County Environmental Purchasing Program assists County agencies in implementation of King County Executive Policy CON-7-1-2, which requires agencies to use recycled and other environmentally preferable products wherever practicable.
The program assembles information about these products and makes it available to specific agency users who can evaluate them and develop applications in County projects.
These environmental purchasing bulletins contain information about the results of product evaluations and other accomplishments of County agencies. We hope this information will help you find ways to use recycled materials in the work of your agency and that you will contact us if we can help you with further information or if you have suggestions.
- Environmental Purchasing Program
- King County Procurement Services Division
Published: March 27, 2003
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Bulletin List
Updated: March 27, 2003
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