$54.6 Million in Fuel, Yet the Engines Continue to Idle.

While costs of different fuels vary, the markets for all are volatile leaving our Transit authorities scrambling for ways to fund for the forecasted increase in transportation expenses.

Through it all, the simplest way to reduce fuel costs is stubbornly overlooked and requests are ignored.

Simply turn the engines off when the vehicle are not in operation.

And yet, The Orange Line buses run from the early hours, throughout the day and into the night, even after they return to the yard and are awaiting service and maintenance. Finally, when they are put away for the night they are turned off.

When asked why the Orange Line buses are left idling in spite of the Metro's policy against idling on layover, Metro Operations and Supervisors explain that the rule doesn't apply to the Orange Line.

When pressed, Metro Supervisors offer explanations such as "Engines that burn CNG run differently and you can't just turn them off and then expect them to restart." Another Supervisor explained that the buses burn clean fuel so it doesn't matter. A driver confided that issues with "cheap" batteries meant that the buses needed to be started while in the yard so that if they didn't start, maintenance could immediately respond and that they were told by their Supervisors to leave the Orange Line buses running while on layover so as to avoid stalling the buses.

Through it all, the Metro's cavalier behavior and lack of responsiveness demonstrates contempt for our air, contempt for our money and contempt for us as a community.

Shutting down the engines on layover (10% estimated reduction in overall run time) would save the Metro approximately $5 Million this year.

Metro, are you listening?