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SamTrans > News Archive > SamTrans Receives Environmental Award From Samceda
SamTrans Receives Environmental Award From Samceda
The San Mateo County Transit District's Maintenance Department recently received
Samceda's Environmental Action Award for its work on the bus repower project.
Samceda represents San Mateo County's business community by acting as the public
policy voice to local officials on issues affecting the business climate and quality
of life on the Peninsula.
The transit district's mechanics breathed new life into 137 SamTrans coaches, which
would've been taken out of service as a result of their age and the requirement to
meet new environmental standards for passenger vehicles. By completing the repower
project, the Maintenance team was able to help improve air quality while saving the
district millions in new coach purchases.
More than $11 million in grant money from the Metropolitan Transportation Commission
helped fund the work, which took four years to complete.
The purpose behind this monumental task was to significantly reduce fleet average
emissions while extending the life of the bus. It required replacing each of the
buses' engines and transmissions, re-wiring the entire bus and ultimately installing
4,700 replacement parts to bring the buses up to the state's new emissions standard
for diesel vehicles.
The result is a 25 percent reduction in fleet average emissions and a 40 percent
increase in fuel economy.
But the feat itself is nothing short of amazing.
"No other Bay Area transit agency has succeeded in completing this many buses.
Others tried but gave up after just a few dozen," said Chief Operating Officer Chuck
Harvey. "But when the SamTrans team thought they were pushing themselves as hard as
possible, they came up with a new approach to speed up the process." Harvey added,
"When we kicked off the repower project, we thought we were only going to be able to
do one or two a month. By the end we had reached six per month."
This project also will benefit the district's bottom line in a fiscal year when
SamTrans is looking for any way to lower costs. Typically, buses have a life of
between 12 and 15 years. The 137 buses were purchased in the early 1990s meaning
that SamTrans would have needed to begin replacing these buses over the next 18
months as they passed out of service. The repower project added another five years
of service to these coaches, in addition to significant fuel savings at a time when
the cost of diesel is heading towards record highs in California.
"The benefit's of this project are a more reliable and fuel efficient fleet and a
more well-rounded work force. This project has really helped our mechanics increase
their pride and ownership," said Manager of Bus Maintenance David Olmeda.
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