MTR 264, NJ Transit: Bus World's Biggest Mistake

Mobilizing the Region
Issue 264 April 7, 2000

NJ Transit: Bus World's Biggest Mistake

On Wednesday, NJ Transit's Board of Directors approved purchase of 1,400 new diesel-powered cruiser buses, thought likely to be the world's largest single bus order. The first of a number of staggered deliveries of the buses will arrive 15 months from now. Overall, the purchase will replace almost all of the agency's long-distance fleet. NJ Transit is also close to completing replacement of more than one-third of its regular transit buses, used on shorter, urban routes. With these decisions, the agency has ensured that the large majority of its buses will continue to release toxic and ozone-inducing diesel emissions for decades to come.

Exposure to the fine particulates in diesel exhaust has been repeatedly associated by medical experts with the onset or aggravation of asthma and other respiratory infections. Not only do these particulates coat the lungs, they are also carcinogenic. International health monitoring organizations from the World Health Organization to the US EPA and the California Air Resources Board have all described diesel exhaust as some form of carcinogen.

Bus fleets around the country have already committed themselves to "no more diesel" bus purchase policies, including Nassau County's Long Island Bus, the NYC DOT franchise fleet and the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority. Nation-wide, buses powered by clean compressed gas (CNG) make up 31% of all new transit bus purchases.

Transit and environmental groups blasted the Board's move: "Compared to other agencies, NJ Transit has a stone age bus policy," said Jennifer Jaroski, the Tri-State Campaign's NJ Coordinator, "Where citizens want action for cleaner air, NJ Transit continues to spew both diesel pollution and litany of excuses for its lack of a clean fuel policy." Rutgers Environmental Law Clinic and NJ PIRG Citizen Lobby joined the Tri-State Campaign in denouncing the Board's decision as backwards and environmentally irresponsible.