A Compressed Natural Gas fueling station has opened in neighboring Lawrence County while a similar facility in Butler will soon begin construction.
The newest of 29 planned CNG facilities across the state opened in New Castle on Thursday. New Castle Area Transit Authority is converting 27 full-size buses to CNG and expects to save more than $350,000 annually, based on current diesel costs and their diesel usage of roughly 330,000 gallons per year.
The final specs for Butler’s CNG Fueling Station will go out in the next couple of weeks and construction is expected to begin in late summer or early fall. The date of completion remains scheduled for sometime in the spring of 2019. Until then, BTA is using a temporary fueling station for CNG buses that are currently in operation.
The New Castle station is open for public use but the Butler station will not be available to the public.
“Our innovative CNG program is advancing across the state, and we are pleased with the opening of this latest fueling station, which will be available for public use,” Governor Tom Wolf said. “We are taking advantage of a cleaner burning fuel that helps the environment while delivering lower operating costs to transit agencies.”
Stations have opened at:
- Cambria County Transportation Authority, Johnstown Facility, includes public fueling.
- Mid Mon Valley Transportation Authority.
- Central Pennsylvania Transportation Authority, York Facility, includes public fueling.
- Cambria County Transportation Authority, Ebensburg Facility
- Westmoreland County Transportation Authority
- Centre Area Transportation Authority
- Beaver County Transit Agency
- Crawford Area Transportation Authority
- New Castle Area Transportation Authority, includes public fueling.
- County of Lebanon Transportation Authority
- Altoona Metro Transit
- Lehigh and Northampton Transportation Authority, Allentown Facility
A list of other agencies participating in the project, in order of construction-start timeline, follows:
- County of Lackawanna Transportation System (2018), includes public fueling.
- Central Pennsylvania Transportation Authority, Gettysburg Facility (2018)
- Butler Transportation Authority (2018)
- Indiana County Transportation Authority (2018), includes public fueling.
- Erie Metropolitan Transportation Authority (2019), includes public fueling.
- Mercer County Regional Council of Governments (2019)
- Fayette Area Coordinated Transportation System (2019)
- Monroe County Transportation Authority (2019)
- Area Transportation Authority of North Central PA, Bradford Facility (2019)
- Area Transportation Authority of North Central PA, Johnsonburg Facility (2019)
- Area Transportation Authority of North Central PA, DuBois Facility (2020)
- Lehigh and Northampton Transportation Authority, Easton Facility (2021)
- Luzerne County Transportation Authority (2021)
- Schuylkill Transportation System (2021)
- Transit Authority of Warren County (2021)
- Capital Area Transit
- Port Authority of Allegheny County
When the project is completed, the fueling stations will supply gas to more than 1,600 CNG buses at transit agencies across the state.
