On January 16 the ambient temperature in Chicago reached minus 24 F with the associated wind chill in excess of minus 40 F. On that day, the North Pole registered minus 8 F. The temperature was so extreme that no matter how anyone dressed, the average person could only stay outside for about 15 minutes.
The advent of hybrid propulsion has turned bus roofs into battery storage compartments — and created an entire new workplace for transit bus maintenance technicians. Sometimes nothing solves a high-tech problem better than a low-tech solution.
MTA New York City Transit has consigned its older transit buses as organ donors to prolong the lives of other buses. As MTA Bus currently takes delivery of the first of 850 Orion Vll Hybrid-Electric buses, a similar number of older Orion and RTS buses hit the dust.