The Sangamon Mass Transit District has approved its first-ever plan to transition its fleet to “zero emissions” in the decades to come.
A zero emissions plan is required for many federal grant applications, and the plan adopted by SMTD this week lays out the details and a timeline. Currently, SMTD operates 34 diesel fuel buses and 22 powered by low-emission compressed natural gas. As the agency replaces its diesel fleet, it will seek to move to hybrids and eventually to hydrogen fuel cell buses, which would result in more than 50-percent of the fleet at zero emissions in the next 25 years. SMTD policy calls for having two different fuel types, in case an emergency makes one type unavailable.
So it expects to continue operating compressed natural gas buses for the foreseeable future.
