Success Stories
Portland’s METRO moves to natural gas powered vehicles.

METRO, Portland Maine’s transit authority, recently purchased several natural gas powered buses for its fleet and opened the first natural gas fueling station in the state.

Dave Redlefsen, METRO's General Manager and Steve Kirby, Director of Finance.

We recently sat down with Dave Redlefsen, METRO’s General Manager and Steve Kirby, Director of Finance to discuss their agency’s move to natural gas vehicles (NGV) and their outlook on the future of these vehicles in the metropolitan setting. “We placed our NGVs into service in March of 2006 and they comprise 50% of our fleet of transit buses”, said Dave Redlefsen. “Here in Maine, the population is very cognizant of environmental issues, and from the outset they were noted with pleasure. It’s been a good bit of self-promotion for METRO when we tell people that running natural gas powered buses results in a 90% decrease in soot emissions from diesel buses.”

But certainly self-promotion and positive public reaction are just two of the benefits of integrating NGV into the METRO fleet. Redlefsen and Kirby both elaborated on the trend to decrease dependency on fossil fuels as a rationale for METRO to investigate this alternative transportation, as early as during the mid to late 90s.

“Back then, people were not aware of the conduits of funding available to them,” said Redlefsen, referring to the programs available to help organizations make the shift to NGVs. “Today, more utilities such as Bay State Gas/Northern Utilities are assuming an educational role to help us understand and address the critical issues, as well as identifying the agencies providing grants for those contemplating a move to NGV.”

Not only are utilities helping to guide municipalities and fleet operators to grant and funding resources available, they are also instrumental in helping to assess the infrastructure, in this case of the city of Portland, to determine if the supply of natural gas is consistent with the needs of METRO for the purpose of locating fueling facilities. Redlefsen said, “Dave Beaulieu of Bay State Gas/Northern Utilities brought over the city grid and reassured us that there was proper supply to allow us to open a fueling facility at our headquarters, via a 10 inch main that looped through the city.” This kind of support was instrumental in METRO’s decision to invest in NGVs.

The financial benefits of NGVs were also significant to METRO. Each bus running on compressed natural gas (CNG) displaces 9000 gallons of petroleum diesel fuel per year. As well, because natural gas burns cleaner than fossil fuels, the engines, manufacturedby John Deere, are expected to last much longer than diesel-fueled engines.

When asked about the future of NGVs for both the City of Portland and beyond, METRO’s Kirby was direct with his answer. “We’re looking to go 100% natural gas.” However, in order for that to happen, Redlefsen commented, “The more agencies that sign up for natural gas, the better. We don’t want to feel isolated in our decision to be at the forefront of technology. When more agencies go with natural gas, that justifies our decision to do so.”