LA Transit Agency Retires Its Last Diesel Buses
LOS ANGELES (AP) — The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority has retired the last of its diesel buses to become the first major transit agency in the nation to only operate buses that run on alternative fuel.
Officials celebrated the conversion on Wednesday by watching a truck haul the diesel buses to a scrap yard.
The MTA began purchasing cleaner-burning buses nearly 20 years ago in an effort to reduce vehicle emissions in one of the smoggiest regions of the country.
The agency phased out the diesel buses over time, and now has 2,221 buses that run on compressed natural gas. The rest of the fleet includes one electric bus and six gasoline-electric hybrids.
The MTA says the buses have logged about a billion "clean air" miles.
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