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(WA) Seattle to buy Orion VII hybrids

 
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RailBus63
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PostPosted: Thu Jul 23, 2009 7:49 am    Post subject: (WA) Seattle to buy Orion VII hybrids Reply with quote

King5.com - Federal stimulus grant delivers more buses for Metro

Quote:
SEATTLE - Thanks to a $46 million federal stimulus grant awarded as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, King County Metro will be able to buy 93 hybrid-electric buses.

King County said Tuesday that an agreement with Daimler Buses North America will also include options to buy more than 400 additional coaches over the next five years.

The initial purchase of 93 buses will cost $45.7 million, slightly less than Metro had originally anticipated. The new coaches will replace Metro’s fleet of Gillig buses, which will be 14 years old by the time they are replaced - two years beyond the typical useful life of a transit bus.

Based on its past experience with hybrid technology, Metro expects to see an estimated 30 percent fuel savings and an equal reduction in greenhouse gas emissions compared with its conventional diesel buses being retired.


Looks like Daimler/Orion is getting more competitive out west - Washington and Oregon are Gillig and New Flyer country, so this is a big win for them.
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timecruncher



Age: 73
Joined: 23 Dec 2008
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Location: Louisville, Kentucky

PostPosted: Thu Jul 23, 2009 2:58 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I like the "typical life" of a new transit bus. And yet Canada routinely gets 12-15 years out of a transit bus after US properties have already run it for 12+ years.

Give a transit agency money and it will be spent!

timecruncher
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RailBus63
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PostPosted: Thu Jul 23, 2009 5:56 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

The Orion VII is supposedly engineered to meet Toronto's requirement for an 18-year service life, which TTC actually wrote into the contract.

I would like to see the FTA rewrite its specifications to increase the transit bus lifespan to 15 years - most of today's buses could be stretched that long with proper maintenance.
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timecruncher



Age: 73
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PostPosted: Thu Jul 23, 2009 7:12 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

And yet, TTC messed up the specs for their Orion Hybrids so badly, that all 400+ of them will need to be retrofitted with better battery packs.

But I agree that writing the specs to require 15 years serviceable operating life is not at all unreasonable. It just isn't the way we do things here in the US. We'd rather spend $$ that we don't have for products that will last just long enough (with our poor maintenance practices) to be replaced.

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