The hybrid vehicle movement had finally come to public transportation on the Central Coast. At least that’s the way it was advertised when the San Luis Obispo Regional Transportation Authority (SLORTA), the consortium that operates more than 40 buses on routes between San Simeon and Santa Maria, bought two hybrid-electric buses a few years ago for more than $900,000.
SLORTA, the largest public transportation operator in San Luis Obispo County, declared on its website that the two new hybrid-electric buses would “allow riders to reduce their carbon footprint locally and on the entire planet.” The authority launched the buses on their prospective routes with great fanfare.
The green hybrid-diesel dream of 2007 has turned into the economic and maintenance nightmare of 2009. The buses not only break down constantly, they have difficulty going uphill, a major problem when many of the RTA’s routes involve crossing the county’s grades.
“They can go uphill,” RTA spokesperson Aimee M. Wyatt said of the hybrid buses. “It’s when they have people in them and they try to go uphill [that] they have a problem.”
Perhaps most galling of all for RTA officials who hoped for greater fuel efficiency from their new buses, the hybrids ended up guzzling more gas than conventional diesel buses. The RTA now uses the hybrids only for light duty and has decided to go backward on the technological timeline for the future and get conventional buses for its next purchases.
The glitch in the green-hybrid bus revolution isn’t limited to the Central Coast. Towns and cities from Hawaii to Eastern Canada have had their green dreams hijacked by technological limitations. The technology for diesel-electric hybrids for many models is still relatively untested and not necessarily suitable for the rugged, rough-and-tumble environment of buses.
Both buses were paid for by a $1.69 million grant financed with $1.35 million from the State Transportation Improvement Fund and $345,000 from local county and city governments. Approximately half was used to convert two older buses to hybrid electric technology. The RTA wants to spend the rest of the $700,000 left over from the grant to buy two new conventional clean diesel buses.
The RTA bought its first hybrid bus for South County Area Transit (SCAT), the portion of its fleet dedicated to serving the southern, Five Cities area of San Luis Obispo County. It broke down constantly and it took a long time to fix, according to RTA documents. This vehicle is now relegated to school bus duties that don’t tax
its frail motor.
The second bus, No. 169, came into service in 2008 and was an even bigger bust. Edward F. King, the executive director hired after the purchase of the hybrid, wrote in a letter to Caltrans—the organization that regulates the grant—that bus 169 had the highest maintenance cost of any bus in the fleet. In just one month, September 2008, the bus had 108 hours of maintenance work done, most of which had to do with the hybrid drive.
Transportation officials were also miffed about the bus’s gas mileage.
“The RTA clean diesel fleet averaged
5.8 gallons per mile in 2008,” King wrote. “The best month for bus 169 has been 3.86.”
The city of San Luis Obispo’s transit
system was also slated to get state money to refit two buses with hybrid technology, but the department decided to use that money to help buy conventional buses instead.
John Webster, manager for the city’s transportation department, said though hybrid bus technology will probably be a part of the city’s future, the technology still hasn’t been perfected and costs a lot more than conventional systems.
This article appears in Nov 5-12, 2009.
