SMTD Board of Trustees Approves Purchase of Nineteen New Buses

The Sangamon Mass Transit District (SMTD) Board of Trustees approved the purchase of nineteen new fixed route buses over the course of their last two monthly meetings. SMTD will purchase eight diesel-electric hybrid buses from Gillig and eleven compressed natural gas (CNG) buses from New Flyer.

“One of the best ways we can provide excellent service to our community is by keeping our bus fleet in a state of good repair,” said SMTD Managing Director Steve Schoeffel. “These new buses will replace buses from 2013 and 2014 and will maintain that state of good repair through the rest of this decade.”

Transit “state of good repair” means buses operating in service are within the manufacturer’s suggested “useful life”, which most recently has been defined as twelve years or over five hundred thousand miles. SMTD buses usually reach that mileage before twelve years. When the new buses arrive in 2026 and 2027, the fleet will maintain a “state of good repair” that will expire very close to their replacement dates.

“The purchase of eleven new CNG buses will move our fleet to majority CNG, with thirty of fifty-six buses running on natural gas, considered a low-emission fuel type,” Schoeffel said. “We will also then have a total of sixteen hybrids, with the remainder of the fleet just ten diesel buses, overall making the SMTD fixed route fleet 82% low emission buses.”

In August, the SMTD Board of Trustees authorized $8,493,392 (plus a 25% contingency) for the purchase of eight 35-ft Gillig hybrids at just over $1 million each and in September authorized $8,359,461 (plus a 25% contingency) for the purchase of eleven 35-ft New Flyer CNG buses at just under $760,000 each. A grant from a recent federal Low/No-Emissions Grant is funding all nineteen buses.

The buses are expected to arrive at SMTD between twelve and eighteen months from the date the order is placed.