STANDING HEAD environmental engines to get credit for building ones that maybe weren’t so environmentally 12 | Mass Transit | MassTransitmag.com | MARCH 2017 friendly. Th ey were trying to fi nd a market for natural gas engines. “I asked, ‘What are you guys doing, what are you selling,’” said Nelson. “It wasn’t two weeks later their whole sales staff was in my front offi ce standing, saying, ‘How are we going to buy some buses?’” MetroLINK laid out its plan, was fortunate to get federal and state funding and then got its fi rst CNG buses in 2002. Prior to this, Nelson said the natural gas buses they were seeing were converted diesels and the fuel performance was really low. Th e purpose-built CNG engine, the elaborate electronic fuel system, it all brought the fuel economy up to almost diesel’s levels. Working with El Dorado National, they did the preliminary research and development to get the John Deere engines in the fi rst round of buses. Aft er that, John Deere put together — with a sizable contribution — a full marketing rollout, funding a series of TV commercials, print media and the rest to tout the benefi t of natural gas engines in the community. “Th at was one of the fundamental biggest changes that we’ve had in a non-user perspective for us, when we went to natural gas,” Nelson stressed. “People were calling us, ‘I just followed your bus and it was great, there was no emissions.’ “When you partner with somebody that has a name like John Deere … that was pretty significant.” Th ough they got on board with CNG early on, it was a pretty smooth transition. John Deere brought in a group of junior college professors and put on a “John Deere College.” Before MetroLINK was deeply involved, they took all of the mechanics off the fl oor and they did a threeday program on understanding natural gas. Following that, Nelson said they had their maintenance team talking highly of how great this natural gas will be and that spilled over to the operators having a comfort level. “When you look at who’s going to scuttle a project the quickest in the technology scene, it’s probably going to be maintenance,” he said. While the community itself wasn’t too concerned, the fi re departments were another story. “We’re bringing something new into the community … any changes are important to them,” explained Nelson. “It was a learning curve for us to train those front line fi remen to understand natural gas is no diff erent than another vehicle going down the street.” Mass Transit AT METROLINK they’re a big proponent of cross training; everybody on the maintenance team gets a little taste of everything, including bus and ferry maintenance.
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