Out with the old and in with the new.
The city of Lafayette is upgrading its transit system they're going green.
Everyday nearly four thousand people board one of the twenty-one Lafayette city buses, but with an ageing fleet, the city is upgrading to an eco-friendly bus.
"We don't release a bus till it travels a minimum of 500,000 miles. buses typically have a life of 12-14 years," said Director of Transportation Tony Tramel.
The city bought five new compressed natural gas buses that are not only more fuel friendly, but they also have wider seats, a new cloth design, and a new floor pattern, but that's not all.
"The base color of the bus has changed from the white to the silver, and we've also added this huge decal with the leaves and fueled by nature advertisement," said Dana Gradney, Transit Supervisor.
With the total renovation of the bus, the city hopes to increase its rider-ship and purchase more buses to replace the rest of its fleet within the coming years.
"Within the next two years, we expect to add four more cng buses and replace the oldest ones in the fleet with those vehicles," said Gradney.
Director of Transportation, Tony Tramel says this is an exciting time for Lafayette, "We're interested in anything we can do to improve our efficiency and to reduce the operating cost of our facilities."
The new buses are expected to hit the roads this fall, and Tuesday, the City-Parish Council accepted the donation of a temporary fueling station from Apache Corporation until a permenant fueling station is built at the city's public works facility.
Chris Welty
cwelty@katctv.com
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