New Regional District of Nanaimo transit buses to run on natural gas   

     March 20, 2013. The Regional District of Nanaimo (RDN) was the natural choice for Canadian British Columbia Transit’s first compressed natural gas (CNG) fleet of buses, said Manuel Achadinha, president and CEO of B.C. Transit.

    The regional district, along with B.C. Transit, announced the addition of 25 new CNG buses which will be in service by spring 2014.

    B.C. Transit is looking to replace about 35 per cent of its fleet(approximately 1.000 buses) over the next five years and considered several communities to pilot the new buses, such as Kamloops and Victoria. In the end, they were looking for a community with a larger fleet (more than 25 buses) that was already looking to replace its aging fleet, that had both infrastructure and community support in place.

    The RDN’s fueling station, which was completed last year, was built with the possibility of hosting CNG in the future, and over the next eight months, will be outfitted to support two diesel and two CNG pumps. The approximate cost to put the new infrastructure in place will amount to approximately $1.5-2 million.

    B.C. Transit is currently in the process of awarding the contract to build the buses, and hopes to have that finalized by the end of the month. To help offset the initial costs associated with the purchase of the new CNG buses, FortisBC will provide funding of up to $937.500. The money represents 75 per cent of the cost differential of CNG over its diesel comparators. In addition, both B.C.

    Transit and the RDN will kick in $6 million.

   (Quoted from http://www.gnvmagazine.com/eng/noticia-new_regional_district_of_nanaimo_transit_buses_to_run_on_natural_gas-3005)