Every single day, the MTA moves about 8.7 million people by transit—on our subways, buses, and railroads. And when almost 9 million riders a day use public transit, a lot of people are not using cars. That allows our region to avoid more than 17 million metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions every year—or more than three times the annual greenhouse gas emissions of San Francisco. It also means New York State has the lowest per capita energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions in the United States.
Our Commitment to Reducing Emissions
Our bus fleet moves over two million riders a day, and hundreds of thousands of commuters out of cars. But just getting people out of cars isn’t good enough, so we’re leading the field when it comes to alternative fuel sources and new technologies for cleaner buses.
The MTA is in year two of a three-year pilot for testing all-electric buses. The new zero-emission, all-electric buses support environmental sustainability, are quieter than traditional buses and feature amenities such as digital information screens to enhance the customer experience and enhanced security systems. Today, you can find these buses operating on the M42, M50, B32, and B39, but our commitment to reduce our carbon footprint started years before.
More than 15 years ago—years ahead of federal mandates—MTA New York City Transit (NYCT) became the first public transportation system in the country to switch to ultra-low sulfur fuel. We’ve continued our focus on increasing MPG for new and existing diesel buses, further reducing our diesel consumption.
Our fleet continues to be one of the cleanest in the entire world with more than 3,300 Clean Diesel buses, 1,683 Hybrid-Electric buses, 749 Compressed Natural Gas buses, and 10 all-electric buses.We expect an additional 15 all-electric buses to start arriving by the end of the year.
We also plan to purchase 45 more all-electric buses in 2019, and we are committed to working towards a zero-emissions fleet.
Beyond Buses
Three NYCT facilities have met or will soon meet LEED standards:
- The Corona Maintenance shop in Queens,
- The Mother Clara Hale Bus Depot in Manhattan, and
- Our new Bus Command Center in Brooklyn, nearing completion, is a future LEED contender.
Open Road Tolling is now up and running at all nine MTA Bridge and Tunnel facilities. That means no tollbooths, no stopping, no idling, no searching for change in your seat cushion. You just go. In less than one year, these improvements have:
- Reduced customer travel time by up to 32% saving customers 3.4 million hours.
- Reduced fuel consumption by 1.6 billion gallons, reducing carbon emissions by 15,393 tons.
Solar Initiative
On Earth Day 2019, the MTA announced the launch of a new initiative that will generate clean, emission free, solar electricity as well as begin a new frontier for a potential revenue stream—the leasing of millions of square feet of industrial roof space to companies interested in generating solar power.Two bus depots have been identified for this initiative: Ulmer Park Bus Depot in Brooklyn and Queens Village Bus Depot in Queens.
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