In 2006, OCTA entered into an agreement with New Flyer of American to deliver 299 Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) powered buses to OCTA. As of September 2008, the bus manufacturer has delivered 202 CNG powered buses to OCTA. The CNG buses purchased under this Contract replace 68 diesel fueled buses that will be retired from service.
The total project cost for the 68 buses was $23,460,000. The MSRC contributed $20,000 per vehicle at a cost of $1,360,000. OCTA provided $22,100,000 in co-funding.
Delivery of the 68 buses was complete in March 2008. The new buses are slated to be operated from four OCTA operating bases; Santa Ana, Garden Grove, Anaheim, and Irvine.
The purpose of this project was to co-fund the purchase of sixty-eight (68) 40-foot CNG fueled urban buses. These 68 buses are part of the first lot of the 202 CNG buses that have been delivered to date. Each bus has a 12-year/50,000 mile life expectancy.
Once the above issues are resolved OCTA believes the reliability factor with the buses will be similar to the rest of its active fleet.
OCTA continues to provide its Operations and Maintenance staff hands on training in areas such as the fuel system, fires suppression, methane detection and electrical systems.
The buses are all available for revenue service but are experiencing some issues with the electrical systems, suspension and slow bus complaints. The manufacturer is working with OCTA staff to correct the issues.