Madison Peak Oil Group

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

From WKOW-TV, Madison:

The ride on a handful of Madison Metro buses is about to get quieter and cleaner. The agency unveiled of five hybrid buses on Tuesday at the UW Arboretum.

Metro is promising these buses could cut fuel consumption by as much as half compared to traditional diesel buses. The technology is similar in concept to hybrid cars. Electric batteries will power the bus when it's idling or going at slow speeds. They're located under that hump in the back of the bus, a design change over traditional buses.

Manufacturer General Motors sais they'll use less fuel, which is good in times of high energy costs, and they'll emit less pollution.
Metro general manager Chuck Kamp said the agency will wait and see if the five new vehicles fulfill those promises before the city orders more. "To allow us to collect data on fuel economy, to collect data on maintenance costs, both labor costs and parts costs, and do a full analysis to see if this is the direction we should be going in the future," said Kamp.

The UW helped purchase two of the buses, which will run on campus-specific routes. The seat configuration in those buses are also different. A wider aisle should help accommodate large backpacks. The other three buses will rotate on other routes in Metro's service area.

GM said so far there are 730 of those buses in use in the U.S. and Canada. Kamp said these five in Madison are believed to be the first in use in Wisconsin. He also said it will be a week or two before those buses hit the road, as some drivers still need to be trained on them.

Watch the video.