The South Bend Public Transportation Corp. (Transpo) selected EFS West as the contractor for their new $3.8 million dollar compressed natural gas (CNG) facility. This will be the first fast-fill public CNG facility in the region and will be able to fuel up to six vehicles at one time. Construction is expected to begin in March with the facility completed and opened by late July 2015.
The facility was made possible by a Department of Energy grant along with additional funding from the Federal Transit Administration through CMAQ grants provided through the Michiana Area Council of Governments (MACOG) and Diesel Wise Indiana. The fueling facility is in partnership with the city of South Bend, which provided the local funding match.
“This facility represents a significant economic investment in our region”, stated David Cangany, Transpo general manager. “The commitment to a large-scale CNG facility reduces the region’s dependence on foreign oil supplies and provides access to CNG for other fleets in the region, including the City of South Bend”, continued Cangany.
Transpo announced in early 2014 that they would begin replacing their aging fixed route fleet with CNG-fueled vehicles. The first new CNG buses arrived in September. Equipment installation and training is underway on the 16 New Flyer Xcelsior vehicles which will go into service later this year.
Transpo and the city of South Bend selected RNL to design the facility which will be located at Transpo’s headquarters in South Bend. Please see attached CNG Facility rendering.
