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The Chicago Transit Authority is about to embark on its second project funded by stimulus cash: it will purchase 58 hybrid buses for $49 million to be delivered this fall, according to a CTA statement.
A contract to purchase the "articulated" vehicles - better known as “accordion” or “bendy” buses -- was signed with New Flyer Industries, a large maker of transit vehicles for the U.S. and Canada. The CTA also placed orders with New Flyer for 150 hybrid buses last year and 265 hybrids in 2006.
According to CTA's statement, its latest purchase could save the agency more than $2.3 million annually in maintenance costs and more than $300,000 in fuel costs.
Track replacement along the Blue Line Dearborn subway, the other stimulus-funded project, is expected to begin later this month and will cost $87 million. This leaves about $105 million in stimulus dollars -- about 44 percent of the total $241 million -- for other projects yet to be announced. [Crain's]
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So...each bus run nearly $850,000? And each bus will save almost $40,000 a year in maintenance costs? And this will take 21 years to recoup the cost? And 3.7 MPG is a hybrid? That's some bad economics. Who's cousin works for New Flyer?
It's textbook "greenwashing".
No different than slapping "Diet" or "50% less fat" on some fast food to make people think it's healthy.
The CTA pension is about to explode and make the "doomsday budgets" look like a dip in the money bin.
I see your point. But at least the numbers on the back of a package that says "Diet" reflect an actual change. This sales pitch to the public is remeniscent of Vanilla Sky when they were trying to convince him that his facial prostethic was not a mask.
Take a look at New Flyer's website. Want something hybrid? Something people will notice a difference with? Look at the electric buses. San Francisco's BART has these. Sure we'll have wires everywhere, but we do already and it's better than 3.7 MPG.
CTA pension, that's another. This entity suffered from irrepairable damage before the pension recipients even started for the CTA.
Heh. I always loved that scene.
Hell, why not just make repairs on the current generation of buses and wait 5-10 years until electric lithium ion fleet vehicles come online? The cost savings on those won't take 20 years and the pollution reduction is dramatic.
It's not that we don't have enough buses. Never has been. The CTA can't field enough drivers on the routes. That's only going to get worse as you go from 4-5 workers paying for one retireee to 2.5 or even 2 paying for one.
All those early retirements in the past few years as "cost cutting"?
The baby boomers are going to bankrupt every pension plan in the next decade. And they're gonna live another 20+ years on average.
Well, the current buses only have an mpg of 2. Most of the CTA's current fleet dates back to the mid 80s, so paying for themselves in 21 years seems doable, if not ideal. I couldn't find pricing information on the New Flyer website for diesel articulated buses, so it's hard to say how much more the city is paying for the hybrids, but that's where the price comparison should be - we really do need a younger fleet that won't break down so regularly.
What about these: http://www.chicagobus.org/bus/500
Bought for $140K a piece 4 years ago. I've seen these on the street. Seem a lot more practical. Sure they might hold less people, but put them on routes that don't usually have people pressed against the glass between 7-9am and 5-7pm.
Oh well. It's kicking a dead horse. I'll look forward to $3 fares by Xmas.