NN schools celebrates its transportation team and the newest member of its propane bus fleet
Oct. 23-- Oct. 23--The shiny yellow school bus was parked in a service bay and festooned with a bouquet of bright balloons and a big blue bow.
It's brand-new and emblematic of two events that Newport News Public Schools celebrated Tuesday: Appreciation Day for its transportation team and the 15,000th propane-fueled school bus delivered by Georgia-based manufacturer Blue Bird Corporation.
When school officials found out that one of their newest 18 propane buses was a milestone, they decided to mark the event not just within the district but with their industry partners and local officials, said Shay Coates, school transportation director.
The buses join the district's fleet of 62 propane vehicles. By year's end, the district plans to add 11 more, comprising nearly a quarter of the district's fleet of 335.
"Our direction now is strictly propane," Coates said at the city's new $38.8 million Service Center for Operations and Transportation (SCOT) facility on Patrick Henry Drive. "When we built this place, it's like, if we're going to do this, we're going all in."
Gloucester County Public Schools was the first district in Virginia to add propane buses to its fleet, according to a case studies report released in 2014 by the U.S. Department of Energy. Gloucester officials found the buses took a bit longer to fuel and had to refuel more frequently, but that those issues were offset by cost savings, reduced engine noise, driver and student morale and safety.
On Tuesday, Blue Bird and industry executives at Phillips Energy Inc. and the Propane Education Research Council also touted the benefits of switching to propane over diesel: lower fuel costs, quieter and more reliable engines, and emissions virtually free of carcinogenic particulates and nitrogen oxides (NOx) that fuel respiratory ills.
In fact, a study released in June by West Virginia University confirms that propane school buses "dramatically decrease" NOx emissions in communities.
Researchers there tested diesel and propane school buses and found that NOx emissions were 34 times higher for diesels over a stop-and-go route similar to actual usage. They found that NOx was slashed by 96% and carbon dioxide by 13% over the same route using a propane autogas bus.
As for the overall fiscal benefits of propane vehicles over diesels, Newport News schools fleet manager Brian Hanna said he's seen it firsthand.
"The diesel buses, the newer ones ... they've gotten so complicated, they have a lot of issues," Hanna said. "The propanes are very reliable -- we don't have any issues with them."
Propane buses are more expensive to purchase initially, Hanna said, at roughly $99,000 for a diesel versus roughly $107,000 for a propane. But when the district purchased its newest 18 buses, it was granted EPA credits of $20,000 per bus, he said, giving it $360,000 toward the purchase of 11 more.
Propane costs about 99 cents a gallon, versus about $1.90 for diesel. Most of that savings does get eaten up by the lower gas mileage of a propane engine, said Hanna, but in the end propane still offers a cost savings of about 5 cents a gallon.
Blue Bird has built about 550,000, said Kuba Szczypiorski, director of alternative fuels. It sold its first propane bus in 1992 and provides more than 80% of the propane school buses operating in the U.S. and Canada.
"For more than 90 years, Blue Bird has been focused on one thing over all else, and that's building a better bus," Szczypiorski said. "And, to us, building a better bus is building a cleaner bus."
Along with propane buses, the company manufactures gasoline, compressed natural gas and electric buses. About half of its vehicles run on alternative fuels.
"This morning, 1.3 million children arrived to school in a propane school bus in 48 states," said Tucker Perkins, president and CEO of the propane council. "18,500 buses, give or take. And it has changed school transportation."
Tamara Dietrich, 757-298-5170, tdietrich@dailypress.com
