PennDOT: Altoona CNG Transit Fueling Station Opens In Blair County

The Department of Transportation Monday announced the formal opening of service at one of the 29 Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) fueling stations planned as part of a Public Private Partnership.

Officials from PennDOT, Trillium CNG, and AMTRAN-Altoona marked the start of fueling at the facility at 3301 Fifth Avenue, Altoona.

"We are making steady progress towards our goal of having CNG fueling stations across Pennsylvania," said Gov. Tom Wolf. "The benefits include more efficiency, cleaner burning fuels and lower fuel costs for our transit agencies."

Through the $84.5 million statewide P3 project, Trillium is designing, building, financing and will operate and maintain CNG fueling stations at 29 public transit agency sites through a 20-year P3 agreement.

Other stations will be constructed over the next five years, and Trillium is also making CNG-related upgrades to existing transit maintenance facilities.

As part of the conversion, AMTRAN-Altoona will convert 28 full-size buses to CNG. The authority estimates saving roughly $350,000 annually based on current diesel costs and their diesel usage of roughly 340,000 gallons per year. The authority is installing four CNG buses into service this month.

PennDOT's overall P3 project includes CNG fueling accessible to the public at six transit agency sites, with the option to add to sites in the future. PennDOT will receive a 15 percent royalty, excluding taxes, for each gallon of fuel sold to the public at public sites, which will be used to support the cost of the project.

Using the P3 procurement mechanism allows PennDOT to install the fueling stations faster than if a traditional procurement mechanism were used for each site, resulting in significant estimated capital cost savings of more than $46 million.

Click Here for more information on the CNG Fueling Stations P3 project.
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Compressed Natural Gas Fueling Station Opens In Altoona