Record procurement in New York: MTA plans to buy 650 new CNG buses

Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), which serves New York City and its surrounding region, is preparing for its largest fleet renewal in the past 13 years, issuing a call for tenders for a total of 650 40-foot (12.19-metre) CNG-powered city buses, Governor Kathy Hochul of New York State announced on September 10. The tender is already part of the MTA’s new Rolling Stock Program, which, according to the agency, takes a different approach to vehicle procurement than before: through a simplified contracting structure, it gives manufacturers greater scope in order to encourage innovation and new ideas. The MTA is accepting bids until October 19.

The tender now announced is the MTA’s largest bus procurement by number of vehicles since 2013. With this investment, the agency will replace more than 10% of its rubber-tyred fleet with brand-new vehicles, which, according to the operator, will serve more than one million passengers a day. The newly arriving vehicles will replace ageing CNG buses, expected to be the MTA’s remaining New Flyer C40LFs built between 2011 and 2013. Like those buses, every vehicle in the fleet now to be procured will run on compressed natural gas (CNG), which the MTA says is a cheaper and greener alternative to diesel. The CNG to be fuelled into the vehicles will be produced from renewable sources, using methane from landfills and farms, significantly reducing full life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions. The MTA also highlights the lower noise impact and maintenance requirements, improved overall reliability, and the fact that the use of renewable natural gas (RNG) provides protection against fluctuations in diesel prices as further advantages of the driveline. (North American industry terminology refers to the fuel described above as “renewable natural gas”, which is essentially the same as compressed biogas, known in Europe as CBG – ed.)

The procurement, to be carried out with funding secured by Governor Hochul, is part of the MTA’s historic Capital Plan for the 2025–2029 period, fulfilling the relevant commitments of the transport development programme called Next Stop: Fast Buses, Better Service, announced this July by the governor and New York City Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani. According to local sources, New Flyer is considered the clear favourite for the tender, although Gillig also produces a model that could meet the requirements. What is more, since official communications indicate that this specific procurement does not involve federal funding, even Nova Bus could, in theory, be in the running, despite the fact that the manufacturer recently ended production in the United States.

The MTA says it is committed to gradually replacing its ageing diesel buses with more environmentally friendly vehicles. In line with this, around 30% of the buses to be procured using Capital Plan funds are expected to be CNG-powered, while the plan also envisages the purchase of a further 500 battery-electric buses, together with the depot charging infrastructure required to operate them.

The lead image is an illustration, source: EmperorOfNYC/Wikimedia Commons