City of Hamilton and Union Gas completed a new compressed natural gas fuel station at the Mountain Transit Centre that will fuel the City’s new fleet of natural gas buses.
In fall 2014, City Council approved the business case for transitioning the City’s conventional bus fleet back to CNG due to the volatile costs of diesel fuel.
The new station has the capacity to allow the city’s fleet of natural gas buses to grow from the current complement of 35 to a total of 120 vehicles over the next six years, city’s statement reveals.
Union Gas built the CNG facility and will also own and maintain it.
The City of Hamilton is Ontario’s first municipality in over a decade to recommit to CNG buses. The first 18 60-foot articulated CNG buses arrived during summer thanks to funding from the federal Gas Tax Fund. They are the first of their kind in Canada. More buses are expected in the first part of 2016 which will include 24 40-foot CNG Nova buses. The City plans to replace about 18 buses per year with CNG until 2020.
Image: Nova Bus