Passenger Bus, Rail and Motorcoach Industry News

The program is the first of its kind in North Texas and was launched to the public on Earth Day.

The six-vehicle contract was awarded last June 2012 in Europe's first publicly tendered order for electric-powered full-size buses.

Using Xcel Energy’s Windsource program, the agency purchased approximately 71,000 kilowatt-hours of wind-generated electricity — about a day’s worth of the power required to operate the light rail line on Earth Day.

Twenty-seven light rail vehicles will be retrofitted with an ultra capacitor-based, energy storage system, which captures and stores regenerative braking energy as it is generated, uses the stored energy for acceleration and releases surplus energy to other vehicles on the system as needed.

Based on the SunLine American Fuel-Cell bus configuration, it utilizes an ElDorado National heavy‐duty urban transit bus glider with a Ballard FCvelocity HD6 fuel-cell power module and BAE Systems’ HybriDrive propulsion system.

Each trip on a train or bus prevents the emission of 10 pounds of greenhouse gases, on average, compared with making that trip by car.

Activities at Washington Union Station will feature daily event offerings to include exhibits and activities such as an alternative energy show, a youth art contest and the NASA Earth Tent. Events are free and open to all ages.

Residents can participate in the program by pledging to replace drive-alone trips and instead take the bus or train, bicycle, carpool, walk, telework or vanpool.

Called the Arc, the service was made possible by a $5,000,000 TIGGER grant . The agency bought three electric-powered buses built by Proterra to run the service.

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