April 23, 2022. NGVAmerica Chairman Jim Arthurs of Westport Fuel Systems and Iain Johnstone, Canada Region Manager of Clean Energy Fuels, presented Mr. Randy Helmer, Vice President, Maintenance, of Coast Mountain Bus Company (CMBC), with NGVAmerica’s Natural Gas Transit Fleet Program of the Year Achievement Award for 2021. CMBC operates the largest fleet of natural gas buses in Canada.
Twelve such awards were announced last November at Natural Gas Vehicles for America’s (NGVAmerica) 2021 Industry Summit and Annual Meeting in Phoenix, AZ for their contributions toward the advancement of natural gas as a transportation fuel. These annual awards are open to nominees from all NGV stakeholder segments across the United States and Canada.
“We are genuinely proud to recognize CMBC for the work that it does and the communities that it serves,” said NGVAmerica Chairman and BC native Jim Arthurs. “Because of its contributions, CMBC is moving to make our communities healthier with fewer emissions through the increased use of renewable natural gas as a transportation fuel.”
TransLink, along with CMBC, which operates and maintains over 95 percent of bus service for the Metro Vancouver region, have been at the forefront of natural gas transit bus operations for over twenty-five years.
CMBC was among the first transit agencies in North America to operate a fleet of Detroit diesel buses converted to natural gas power. The agency today operates second and third generation natural gas buses out of its Port Coquitlam, Surrey, and New Westminster facilities, cutting its overall criteria pollutant emissions by 90 percent and demonstrating how natural gas buses are a cost-effective, operationally and environmentally effective alternative to diesel and diesel electric hybrid buses.
Now operating the largest fleet of natural gas buses in Canada, CMBC is in the process of transitioning its fuel source to renewable natural gas (RNG), or biomethane.