The City of Manteca is buying three replacement cutaway buses for Manteca Transit.

The City Council authorized the $787,715 purchase using pass through state and federal transit funds during a recent meeting.

The bus fleet currently has three fixed route 24-foot-long gas-powered cutaway buses that will exceed their usable life of 200,000 miles and will need to be replaced this year.

 It is not cost effective to continue maintain and operating them daily, once they have met or exceeded their useable life of 7 years or 200,000 miles. 

It will take approximately 12 months from the time of order until the buses will be in service.

Manteca Transit in delivery took delivery of the first of two 29-foot cutaway clean natural gas powered fixed route buses with seating for 26 and the capability to carry 40 using grab straps plus an electric van for dial-a-ride serviced.

 Eventually all four fixed routes will have CNG buses. The two additional CNG buses will bring the number to three.

The buses are powered using CNG produced at the City of Manteca wastewater treatment plant. It is created from methane gas — a byproduct of the wastewater treatment plant — and food waste.

The city is moving to comply with requirements that all transit buses must be zero emission in the coming years.

The state is allowing two options — battery electric and hydrogen.

Some transit systems have asked the state to continue allowing CNG buses.

Manteca — which was extensively praised by the state when it put in a system that prevents methane that is on top of the greenhouse gas hit list from being released into the atmosphere — has asked for an exception for the city’s solid waste trucks.

Manteca may ask for an exception as well for city transit buses.

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com