All-electric MTA buses hit NYC streets

NEW YORK (FOX5NY.COM) - To its existing nearly 1,700 hybrid buses, more than 3,300 diesel buses, and 760 compressed natural gas buses, the MTA on Tuesday added three new city buses powered only by electricity.

"Our vision someday would be to have that zero-emission bus fleet," MTA Bus Executive Vice President Craig Cipriano said.

He said he plans to phase in another seven electric buses in the next month as part of a three-year trial program testing this technology, which is in use in just 250 other individual all-electric city buses across the country.

"We know they have experienced some issues in some earlier deployments," Cipriano said.

If the MTA deems its 10-unit electric fleet suitable for the city's hot-heat and cold-cold it can add 60 more as perhaps the beginning of an answer to the governor's mandate for the agency to reduce emissions and modernize the city's bus fleet.

Before committing completely to so-called alternative propulsion technologies, Cipriano said he needs to ensure that tech holds up.

"A really robust resiliency plan. As we all recall right around Sandy when we had issues with power and the subways were down, really the buses were the ones that came to the rescue and started up the city once again," Cipriano said.

The all-electric models will run crosstown on 42nd Street and 50th Street and the B32 route in Brooklyn and Queens.