October 19, 2021. City staff presented a recommendation to purchase three additional 35-foot compressed natural gas (CNG) buses at a cost of $1.87 million. The city will receive an 80 percent reimbursement — $1.49 million — from the Georgia Department of Transportation for the purchase.
Approval by the Albany City Commission would give the transit system a total of 18 large buses. The six smaller paratransit buses in the fleet, like the current 15 large buses, are all powered with natural gas.
“I want people to know we’re 100 percent CNG,” Ward III Commissioner B.J. Fletcher said. “Sometimes we have one or two buses out for maintenance, and we have to use some of the smaller buses. This will help reduce that.”
The buses also are environmentally friendly compared to the diesel units replaced by the city over the past few years. “CNG is one of the cleanest fuels,” Fletcher said.
In addition to providing spare buses for the fleet, the new buses, if approved, would allow for route expansion and provide savings in fuel costs, Albany Transportation Director David Hamilton said. “We have a 15%t savings in fuel costs right now,” compared to diesel, he explained.