Nothing by Halves

If you’re in Las Vegas today at 1000 Pacific Daylight Time (1800 BST), be sure to get to the Fremont Street Experience, First Stage Street, where the Southern Nevada Regional Transport Commission will officially launch its premier ACE Gold Line service.

We reported yesterday that New York had received the final delivery of the single biggest order for hybrid buses, ever (to date). It’s comforting to know, in the land of the automobile, that there’s concern over emissions. New York is by no means alone in transforming its bus fleet by ordering hybrids, now seen as almost the norm.

There are plenty in England who equate bus travel with some sort of inadequacy. Operators are attempting to shift that perception by distigmatisation. How much more difficult it must be in the States where to travel by “public transportation” equates to total failure. When the Star-spangled Banner talks of the Land of the Free, it might just be referring to the freedom of movement by automobile, long held as an inalienable right.

Things are changing. City region after city region is now belatedly investing in its bus service. El Paso, Texas, this week considers bus rapid transit, an investment of some £330mil.

And so to Nevada. On Monday, the RTC in Las Vegas began its new ACE Gold and ACExpress “rapid transit lines”, aimed at reducing congestion in “downtown” Las Vegas and the resort strip, with dedicated bus lanes that allow buses to move faster, with fewer stops than other routes. Both ACE Gold Line and ACExpress C-Line feature “sleek, train-like hybrid vehicles”—none other than US-specified Wrightbus Streetcars, of which there will be 50 in service at an estimated cost of £55mil.

This is a culmination of a four-year investment programme in premiere routes that include Enviro500s on The Deuce. The Streetcars’ hybrid units—what else?—are by ISE Corp, the same people believed to be providing hydrogen-fuelled buses to London’s small progressive fleet. The total cost of ACE? $160mil.

In the exception that proves the rule, the Sacramento Regional Transport Board voted on Monday to reduce pubic transportation budgets by 22 per cent. 28 of 91 routes will be withdrawn. Nothing will move after 2100. About 100 drivers an 100 other staff can expect to be on furlough, in an effort to save $11mil.