Two buses, which were converted to dual fuel powered vehicles, were introduced on the first day of the C40 City Mayors’ Summit, transporting attendees from around the world on tours of green initiatives around Johannesburg.
Transport MMC Christine Walters said the choice to introduce dual fuel buses in the new fleet stemmed from aiming to contribute to the footprint of reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
According to Walters, the buses, which utilise compressed natural gas in conjunction with diesel to power their engines, would contribute to the reduction of fuel emissions and cost-saving in managing the fleet.
“This engineering model utilises 70 percent compressed natural gas and 30 percent diesel, which results in an overall 70 percent cost-saving and 70 percent less fuel emissions,” she said.
Following a feasibility study, the city council had considered stopping the Metro bus services due to its poor performance, which included Metro Bus becoming insolvent, breakdowns, bus stops being missed and unreliability.
However, she said, following recommendations the city council decided to improve the current state of Metro bus services by implementing a new business model to manage its operations.
These would include addressing the bus company’s reliability, the cost of operating and maintaining the buses, and driver behaviour.
Walters added that currently 56 of the 450 Metro buses could not be repaired and 90 more had ongoing gearbox and engine problems, which impacted on the efficiency of the service.
According to Walters, Metro buses gave the public an affordable public transport option; however, if people were expected to use the service, the city council needed to ensure that it was a good, safe, reliable and a comfortable means of travel.
She added that the city council planned to purchase 100 new buses per financial year for the next three years, adding that the buses would be built and their engines sourced in South Africa.
The initiative to source the engines and base the manufacture of buses in South Africa would create job opportunities within the country, she said.
