The Bartow County School Board, in the state of Georgia, has decided to convert the school system’s bus fleet to Autogas, after approving the purchase of new 72-passenger LPG-powered vehicles through the state contract with Yancey Bus Sales. Most of the funds, $491,184, will come from the Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST), a financing method for funding capital outlay projects in Georgia, while the remaining $154,440 will come from the amended fiscal year 2018 state bond funds.

“The approval is our first step towards going 100% Autogas for the school district as older buses begin being replaced,” Transportation Director Jody Elrod said. “We plan for all future bus purchases to be LPG-powered buses.”

“We have more options than ever when we go to purchase buses, and we have three basic options — to stick with the diesel bus or move to gasoline buses or Autogas buses,” said Chief Leadership and Learning Officer Kimberly Fraker. “After doing their research, we really came out with propane as the direction we feel we need to go in with buses in the future.”

According to Elrod, replacing diesel buses with Autogas buses will benefit the school system due to cost savings per mile, as well as reduced emissions and noise. “The latest round of emissions standards for the diesel engines is really causing some issues in our operations. Autogas buses are also 40% quieter than diesel buses,” he said.

“One very impressive number is the overall lifetime savings as far as operational costs is much lower with Autogas versus the gasoline and much cheaper than the diesel,” he added. “We hope in the next couple of years to replace the entire fleet with Autogas buses.”

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7 November 2018