AND YOU THOUGHT THE BUS METRO WAS A BIT LATE...

By Juan Montoya

It has been more than seven months since one of the much-ballyhooed electric hybrid diesel buses has sat at a local mechanics shop awaiting the decision by Brownsville Metro honchos on what to do with it after its employees filled it up with gasoline and wrecked the engine.

At a cost of $700,000, it was one of five  electric hybrid diesel buses bought by the city under a federal Fiscal Year 2016 Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) Discretionary Grant Program. 

All told, the five buses cost $3.5 million was heralded as Brownsville's entry into the brave new world of energy savings, and reducing transportation costs and emissions for a cleaner and greener community.

The city commission on March 19, 2019, approve the purchase of the five buses at an average of $700,00 per unit from Gillig LLC. The spanking new buses were received in May and that's where the trouble started.

Unfortunately, no one told the low-paid maintenance workers or mechanics at BUS Metro that the new buses didn't use gasoline. So it was surprising when one of the buses (#237) started to cough and sputter when it was run by the drivers.

When it stopped, the brass discovered that it had been filled with gasoline instead of diesel.

If gasoline was used instead of diesel, then there is a strong probability that the warranty would be voided and BUS will have to pay for it out of its own pockets. So far inaction has been the guiding principle of the BUS bosses.

Diesel-electric hybrid buses use both electricity and diesel, the same concept as hybrid automobiles. Bus batteries store energy and recharge when the bus decelerates. When demand for power exceeds battery capacity, the diesel engine provides extra energy.

A computer controls the output of the two power sources, diesel and electricity, so the buses always use the most efficient source. But gasoline, unfortunately, is not part of the equation. To repair it, if it can be repaired, will probably take a small fortune. We are told by BUS sources that the engine – if it can be saved – will have to be taken apart entirely and the entire system purged of he offending gasoline. But the least they can do is provide the mechanic the batteries he needs to analyze the extent of the damage.

“Brownsville is leading the Rio Grande Valley,” said then-Brownsville Mayor Tony Martinez said, conveniently forgetting to mention that McAllen already had them since 2016. “These diesel hybrid buses will save energy and reduce costs and emissions for a cleaner and greener community.”

What was the difference between Brownsville and McAllen? Was it the managers at their bus system who made sure that everything was done the way it was supposed to be done? Or did they merely polish up their press releases for their resumes and leave the grease work to the poor slobs at the maintenance shop?

A National Renewable Energy Laboratory report found that hybrid buses provide 37 percent better fuel economy over diesel-only buses. In addition, the Environmental and Energy Study Institute notes that hybrid buses should have longer lives and lower maintenance costs due to the reduced stress created by the electric engine.

In this case, the forgotten bus at the shop is using 100 percent less fuel than any bus, since it is going nowhere. And as far as maintenance, well, if it doesn't run, you don't have to maintain it at all, so it could last forever.

See, there's always a silver lining to any dark cloud of diesel exhaust, isn't there?