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  • Tribune-Star file photo/Jim Avelis Moving forward: Terre Haute Mayor Duke Bennett talks about the addition of hybrid busses to the city's fleet during a press conference May 4, 2010.

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July 24, 2012

Hybrid buses not running as sweetly as city would like

Arthur Foulkes The Tribune-Star

TERRE HAUTE — Maybe Terre Haute’s “green” hybrid buses should have been painted lemon yellow instead.

Or so members of the Board of Public Works and Safety may be thinking after they learned Monday that the city’s two gasoline-electric hybrid buses, purchased with federal stimulus money two years ago, have been maintenance nightmares.

Now Anzure Dynamics, the Canada-based company that made the buses, has filed for bankruptcy protection, meaning future repairs to the buses will likely be at the city’s expense, said Brad Miller, Terre Haute’s transportation director.

Up to now, Azure has paid for the frequent repairs, including a recent “total rebuild,” Miller said.

The city purchased the two hybrid buses in the spring of 2010 with optimistic fanfare. Since then, they have experienced repeated maintenance problems, Miller said.

The buses were painted red and green to symbolize the transition from the conventional buses to new green technology. “But they were never on the road long enough to accomplish that,” Miller told the Board of Public Works and Safety Monday.

The two hybrids, which have run well since their recent overhaul, cost $204,000 a piece when they were new.

“Before [the hybrids] went back for this complete rebuild, if we had one that ran three weeks, we would have [a celebration],” Miller said after Monday’s Board of Works meeting. “We had situations where we had to fly people in from Boston to look at them. Nobody could figure out what was wrong with them.”

Now the city is looking at buying another hybrid bus. But this one will be manufactured by Gillig, a California-based company. Miller expects this bus to be much more reliable than the two current buses have been.

The new bus, whose purchase the Board of Works approved Monday, will cost $587,000, although 80 percent of that cost will be covered by a federal Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement grant, provided through the Metropolitan Planning Organization of the West Central Indiana Economic Development District. Even the remaining 20 percent covered by the city will be mostly reimbursed, Miller said.

The city will not take delivery of the new Gillig bus until late next year, Miller said. The city’s share of the cost will come out of next year’s transportation budget, he said.

The Terre Haute Transit Authority bus system operates a fleet of 15 buses.

Azure Dynamics remains in business, but has laid off 120 of 160 employees and closed operations in Michigan, Massachusetts and the United Kingdom. Company officials have said they are optimistic they can rebuild the business, which traded on the Toronto stock exchange and was formed in 2008. It filed for bankruptcy protection in March.

Reporter Arthur Foulkes can be reached at (812) 231-4232 or arthur.foulkes@tribstar.com.

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