PA District Among First to Get Hybrid Electric Bus

The Nazareth Area School District in Pennsylvania is buying one of the first 17 hybrid electric buses in the country, according to Jennings Transportation of Nazareth. That district contracts 60 buses from Jennings.

“The school district earmarked $14,000 in this year’s budget for the bus. Total cost is $209,000. Regular school buses cost about $67,000,” says Meghan Ochs, a spokeswoman from Jennings Transportation. A grant from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection will cover $112,000 of the cost. Jennings will pay $67,000 and a group of North Carolina electric companies will fund the remaining $16,000.

The bus is expected to arrive in February 2007 and the Nazareth district will compare how it runs to other buses.

Thirteen other districts across the U.S. will purchase buses through the Plug-in Hybrid Electric School Bus Project created by Advanced Energy, a nonprofit organization based in Raleigh, North Carolina.