Soot-belching buses are getting harder to find in Ventura County as big transit fleets rapidly convert to cleaner-burning fuels, driving down smog and establishing the county as one of the first in the nation to substantially rid itself of dirty diesel engines.
During the 1990s, operators of three of the county's biggest transit bus fleets have made smokeless buses a priority. The result is cleaner air--air quality officials say replacing a diesel bus with one powered by natural gas is equivalent to removing 35 cars from the road.
Credit the effort to environmental concerns, improved engine designs and an infusion of public and private cash for cleaner, but more costly, coaches.
More than three-quarters of the buses run by South Coast Area Transit, the county's biggest fleet with 44 vehicles, are powered by low-polluting engines, and more clean coaches are on the way.
The big white buses, which sport turquoise and tangerine trim and the slogan "clean air fuel for a cleaner environment," carry an estimated 3 million passengers annually in an area from Port Hueneme to Ventura to Ojai.
Thousand Oaks Transit replaced its four diesel buses with alternative-fuel models. Simi Valley Transit will replace half its fleet of nine buses next month and the rest in little over two years.
Once orders for seven new alternative-fueled buses are filled by January 2001, all the buses in those three fleets will be powered by natural gas, save for nine diesel coaches SCAT plans to keep in reserve.
Despite those gains, the county has a long way to go before all diesel-powered buses, a constant source of irritation to motorists and pedestrians choked by clouds of exhaust, are gone.
Ventura Intercity Services Transportation Authority, which uses nine buses to link the county's cities, has no plans to use cleaner models. Most school districts are sticking with diesel buses. And operators of small transit fleets, including Fillmore Area Transit Corp. with three buses and Moorpark with one, continue to rely on diesel.
Even with substantial government subsidies, some fleet operators say they cannot afford new, cleaner buses. Buses powered by compressed natural gas, the engine increasingly challenging diesel motors, cost about $300,000, 30% more than a diesel model. New fuel stations and added maintenance--the new buses require more care--put the buses out of reach for some.
