SunLine Transit Agency serves the Coachella Valley region of Riverside County. SuLine is unique among transit service providers in the South Coast AQMD in that they were the first transit property to transition their fleet to 100% alternative fuel operation. SunLine has also been a leader in demonstrating advanced transit bus technologies, including Hythane and hydrogen fuel cell buses.
The total project cost exceeded $5.65M. MSRC Clean Transportation Funding was used to offset the incremental cost of the CNG option, minus the funding contribution made by the Federal Transit Administration. The total MSRC funding award was $135,000.
SunLine was able to "piggy back" on an option order placed to Orion Bus Industries by the City of Fresno, California. Per FTA guidleines, a bus assignment of Option Buses was issued by the City of Fresno to SunLine Transit Agency for 15 40-foot Orion V CNG transit buses. Pre-production meetings were held in November 2004 and were completed in January 2005. Construction of the prototype bus was completed in January 2006. SunLine formed a bus acceptance team to prepare the new buses for service; each new bus underwent safety inspections and was function tested prior to being placed into revenue service.
The objective of this project was to replace older, "first generation" compressed natural gas (CNG) transit buses with new CNG buses certified at the California Air Resources Board's 2005 Optional NOx standard. With financial assistance from the MSRC's Clean Transportation Funding Program, SunLine procured 15 new Orion V buses equipped with the Cummins C Gas Plus natural gas engine. This allowed SunLine to retire 15 1994-1995 vintage CNG buses equipped with the Cummins L10 engine. The incremental NOx and particulate matter reductions of the model year 2005 Cummins engine as compared to the 1994/'05 engines i significant; on the order of 3.2 g/bhp-hr lower NOx emissions and 0.19 g/bhp-hr lower PM emissions.
The use of low-emission alternative fuels in transit buses is applicable to all transit operators in the South Coast AQMD, and is required under AQMD Rule 1192 and the CARB Urban Transit Bus Rule.
The new transit buses were placed into revenue service beginning on May 15, 2006. All 15 buses were in service as of July 31, 2006.
Federal Transit Administration (FTA)
Orion Bus Industries