Cincy Metro providing ‘green’ holiday gift for riders

Cincinnati Metro has an early ‘green’ holiday season gift for its riders. The agency will unveil six new hybrid buses on Friday, which will begin service on Monday. The new vehicles will replace older diesel buses that are past their useful life. An additional eight hybrids will join the Metro fleet early next year.

The new hybrid buses were purchased with funding from the Ohio Department of Transportation’s Clean & Green and Next Generation programs, the Federal Transit Administration’s Clean Fuels program, federal earmarks and the City of Cincinnati’s Transit Fund.

The 14 new hybrids will more than double Metro’s hybrid fleet. With the addition of the buses next month, Metro will have a total of 27 hybrid buses in service in 2012.

In 2011, Metro’s hybrids reduce greenhouse gas emissions by an estimated 823 tons.

Metro is a non-profit, tax-funded public service of the Southwest Ohio Regional Transit Authority, providing more than 17 million rides per year.