School bus contractor Durham School Services is adding 149 propane school buses from IC Bus to its contract with Waterbury Public Schools in Connecticut.
The buses are expected to be in service when Waterbury’s school year starts on Monday. The district signed a five-year contract with Durham last year.
Steve Schmuck, Durham’s vice president of services operations for the East region, said propane school buses fit the company’s “green efforts.”
“Propane is an option in that evolution,” he added. “We are pleased to have partnered with IC Bus as these new buses will help improve the Waterbury community environmentally, while getting our students to school safely, on time and ready to learn.”
The CE Series buses are powered by 8.8-liter LP engines from Power Solutions International. Navistar, the parent company of IC Bus, said in a statement that the propane engines are designed to operate like their diesel counterparts, such as a higher torque output at lower engine speeds that benefit the stop-and-start behavior of most school bus routes.
The high torque-low speed design also allows for immediate acceleration after stops and greater hill climbing capability, which improves startability and gradability. Other features of the CE Series propane engine include the elimination of excessive noise, heat and vibration associated with constant engine revving.
“Minimal revving reduces engine wear, oil usage and maintenance, while increasing durability and efficiency,” Navistar said in the statement.
Trish Reed, vice president and GM of IC Bus, said the Durham order is the largest to date of the new propane CE Series. IC Bus’ previous high order of its new Propane CE Series conventional school bus, which went into production in June, went to Indianapolis Public Schools earlier this summer.
Meanwhile, Durham will celebrate its 100th anniversary in 2017. The contractor is a National Express Group company, and operates more than 18,000 school buses for 475 school districts in 32 states.
