August 27, 2007
LA, Home of North America's Largest Natural Gas Bus

Ever feel like you're cramped in a bus of 100 people? Imagine a bus where 100 could fit comfortably.
As reported last week, the Orange Line in the Valley got a new bus to play with today. The gigantic 65-foot bus that will be in service for a one year pilot began taking passengers back and forth between the NoHo Arts District and Woodland Hills late this morning.
To alleviate the high usage of the 2-year old transit way (they just recorded their 10 millionth boarding), Metro decided to try out the NABI 65-foot articulated bus specially made for the Metro Orange Line. "The vehicle is the first-of-its-kind, designed exclusively to operate on the Orange Line, and will be the highest capacity articulated compressed natural gas bus now in operation in North America," says Metro.
The extra 5-feet over the usual high capacity buses increases the seated passenger load to 66, a 16 percent increase. Add in standing passengers and you're look at a capacity of 100 people total. Happy riding!
More pictures after the jump.


Top Photo by Metro/Gayle Anderson. Bottom two photos by Metro/Juan O’Campo.



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They have a similar, albeit older, bus in the NYC system and these are quite common in Europe.
It's about damn time we got them here. Now, only if we could get about 50 more lines with these running on them...