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DART Unveils New Compressed Natural Gas Bus

DART unveiled Dallas' new compressed natural gas bus on Wednesday.
BJ Austin
/
KERA
DART unveiled Dallas' new compressed natural gas bus on Wednesday.

DART gave Dallas City  Council members a sneak peek at the new compressed natural gas bus that will roll out  in October.

DART is changing its entire fleet to natural gas and has 459 of the 40-foot-long buses on order. 

The conversion will take a couple years.  DART says it has locked in a good price for CNG for the next 10 years, and the cleaner-fuel buses will go a long way toward improving North Texas air quality.

The new buses are high tech, too. Each will be equipped with nine on-board cameras for enhanced security. Two large screens will display real time schedule information.  Each bus costs more than $300,000.

Former KERA reporter BJ Austin spent more than 25 years in broadcast journalism, anchoring and reporting in Atlanta, New York, New Orleans and Dallas. Along the way, she covered Atlanta City Hall, the Georgia Legislature and the corruption trials of Louisiana Gov. Edwin Edwards.