Manhattanville Bus Depot

Översikt

The Manhattanville Bus Depot is responsible for storing the buses for the M1 M2, M3, M4, M5,M7, M10, M11, and M60 routes.

Anabel and Anya, members of Our Green Harlem, report that "The Manhattanville Bus Depot is a cause for air pollution and noise pollution. The gas that comes from these buses adds to the unsanitary air that we breathe in." However, The MTA New York City Transit's fleet is slowly becoming environmentally-friendly. The MTA has been purchasing newer low floor Compressed Natural Gas and Hybrid Electric buses, and all gas powered buses use Ultra-low sulfur diesel fuel. All buses in the New York City Transit fleet are wheelchair accessible, as required by the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990.

Twenty-five percent of children under the age of 13 in Central Harlem have asthma—more than five times the national rate. Six of Manhattan’s seven diesel bus depots are located in northern Manhattan next to schools, hospitals, and recreational facilities. West Harlem Environmental Action (WE ACT) believes the concentration of highly polluting diesel buses and high asthma rates are no coincidence.

For more than 15 years, WE ACT has been working in partnership with neighborhood residents to reduce diesel pollution in Harlem. They’ve highlighted data linking pollution with asthma, educated the community about the dangers of diesel emissions, advocated for fewer buses and trucks coming through the neighborhood, and demanded that the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) use cleaner buses.

In 2001, WE ACT filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Transportation alleging that diesel bus depots were disproportionately located in Manhattan’s minority communities. They co-filed the complaint with civil rights attorneys who asserted that the high number of depots in northern Manhattan violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, an act barring federal funding for any program that discriminates based on race. To support the complaint, WE ACT did a land use analysis that showed a high proportion of people of color living near the depots.

The federal Department of Justice compelled the MTA to enter into mediation to resolve the suit and WE ACT organized residents to attend mediation meetings to share their personal stories with MTA representatives. The MTA committed to continuing negotiations with WE ACT and local residents to improve bus depot operations, train workers on the environmental health impacts of their work on local communities, monitor bus idling, and convert the fleet to cleaner vehicles such as hybrid-electric buses. Negotiations are ongoing and the MTA has begun to implement some of the programs WE ACT has recommended.

The Clean Fuel Bus Program
NYC Transit was the first public agency in the world to have a bus fleet 100 percent accessible to customers who use wheelchairs. NYC Transit also explored ways to make its bus fleet better for customers by introducing environmentally friendly features.

In the 1990's New York City Transit launched an alternative fuel vehicle program. Former Governor George Pataki and the State Legislature announced a historic plan on June 1, 2000 to transform the NYC Transit bus fleet into the cleanest in the world. To date NYC Transit has committed roughly $1 billion to the Clean Fuel Bus Program with the following results:
In September 2000, NYC Transit became the first public transportation system in the country to switch all diesel buses in the fleet to ultra-low sulfur fuel, which has 90 percent less sulfur than traditional fuel and reduces emissions. This was years ahead of federal mandates.

In 2002, the Department of Buses received the Clean Air Excellence Award from the United States Environmental Protection Agency. Click here to see the award.

To date we have repowered 671 buses, replacing original two-stoke engines with new, four-stoke engines that are up to 94 percent cleaner burning. In addition, NYC Transit retired its last 2-stroke diesel engines in the summer of 2005.

NYC Transit has retrofitted more than 3,200 buses with diesel particulate filters, an emissions control technology that reduces diesel particulate emissions from engines by as much as 95 percent. In addition, we have received 1,300 new buses that have diesel particulate filters.

NYC Transit has the largest hybrid-electric bus fleet in the world. In the summer of 2009, NYC Transit had 855 hybrid buses, and MTA Bus Company had 316, for a total of 1,171.

The Jackie Gleason Depot converted to 100 percent compressed natural gas (CNG) operations in 1999. The West Farms Depot opened in 2003; today, half its fleet is CNG buses. NYC Transit has 486 CNG buses; MTA Bus Company has 290, and MTA Long Island Bus has 336; that’s a total of 1, 112 CNG buses operated by MTA agencies as of summer 2009.

In 2002, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) presented the Clean Air Excellence Award to New York City Transit's Department of Buses for the purchase of hybrid electric buses, its use of ultra-low sulfur diesel fuel and diesel particulate filters, and its diesel engine repowering program.

In November 2005, the California Transportation Energy Future Conference gave New York City Transit's Department of Buses its Blue Sky Merit Award for contributions to clean air and energy efficiency.

Our Green Harlem
updated 07/2010 by Mrs.Cullen