City of Albuquerque's low-emission bus fleet to grow

In the search for new fuels, the Albuquerque Transit Department is going old school.

Alternative fuels started gaining attention in the 1970s, said ABQ Ride Associate Director Chris Payton. In the 1990s, compressed natural gas (CNG) — a low-emission alternative to diesel that produces 27% less carbon emissions — came onto the scene as what Payton calls the “first alternative fuel that was widely adopted.”

Albuquerque followed suit, purchasing 40 compressed natural gas buses in 1997 and building a natural gas fueling station at the Transit Department’s Yale facility.

Now, the city is recommitting to the technology with an updated fueling station at the transit facility on the West Side, which can service over 100 CNG vehicles, and plans to nearly double the number of CNG buses in the fleet as part of the city’s 2021 pledge to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

“That just speaks to the foresight of the department and the city,” Payton said.

The $4 million infrastructure project was built using majority federal matching dollars. The project also includes a $2 million natural gas monitoring system to keep mechanics at the facility safe. Leaks are rare, Payton said, but in the case of a natural gas leak, alarms would go off at the shop and the exhaust system immediately engage to clear the gas from the facility.

“In your home, you don’t want to have any gas leakage, and you have alarms that go off,” Payton said. “We have the same type of system … It’s a very comprehensive system — the fire department came out and said it was the nicest thing they’d ever seen.”

In early 2024, the department expects to add 35 new CNG vehicles. The buses are hundreds of thousands of dollars cheaper than electric or diesel hybrid buses, with a price tag that Payton says is comparable to the price of a clean diesel bus.

CNG is considered a low-emission fuel. It produces 316 grams less carbon dioxide emissions than diesel, although it still emits more than electric or diesel-hybrid transit buses. Electric buses produce less than half the carbon emissions that CNG does.

But when it comes to cost efficiency, CNG is close to competing with electric. The electric buses in the fleet, Payton said, can drive three miles per each $1 spent. CNG buses can drive 2.5 miles, more than double the efficiency of conventional diesel, which sits at 1 mile per $1, and almost double that of diesel hybrid, which drives 1.3 miles per $1.