Heavy Duty and Medium Duty Transit Bus Analysis

County of Fairfax, VirginiaCounty of Fairfax, Virginia
Heavy Duty and Medium Duty
Transit Bus Analysis
Board Transportation Committee
July 19, 2016
Fairfax County Department of Transportation
Presented by Kris Miller & Jose Pineda
Department of Transportation

County of Fairfax, Virginia
Introduction
• In response to a Board request, the Transit Services Division (TSD) has
conducted a comparison of life cycle costs for Heavy duty vs. Medium duty
Transit Buses.
• Analysis was conducted in consultation with Parsons Brinckerhoff (PB).
Key resources utilized include:
– Transit Cooperative Research Program (TCRP)
– Federal Transit Administration (FTA)
– National Transit Database (NTD)
– American Public Transportation Association (APTA)
• The presentation provides a comparative analysis of heavy-duty 12-year,
heavy-duty body-on-chassis 10-year, and medium-duty body-on-chassis 7-
year buses available for procurement and use in the U.S. transit industry.
Department of Transportation 2

• Transit bus fleets in the U.S. are dominated by heavy-duty buses with 12-
year life cycles. Most transportation agencies maintain vehicles for 15
years.
• An estimated 70,000 vehicles, (approx.: 78 percent) of the industry, uses
12-year heavy duty vehicles.
• Approximately 5 percent use 10 or 7-year vehicles, with the remaining
using smaller vehicles.
• Three categories of buses, type of duty cycle, and the service they are
typically designed to provide.
Bus Type Year/Miles Applicable Service
Heavy-Duty Large 12 years or 500,000
miles
Fairfax Connector,
Metrobus
Heavy-Duty Small 10 years or 350,000
miles
Private Shuttle, GMU
shuttle
Medium-Duty or
Purpose Built
7 years or 200,000 Fastran, Paratransit
service, hotel shuttles
Bus Types

Bus Types
Photo of New Flyer Excelsior,
Heavy-duty 12 year bus
Photo of Glaval Universal,
Medium-duty 7 year bus
Photo of Glaval Legacy,
Heavy-duty 10 year bus

Heavy‐Duty 12-year Transit Buses: Fairfax Connector,
Metrobus
• Buses must meet all Federal Bus Testing Requirements
(FBTR), including Altoona bus testing facility for the category of
12-year/500,000 miles.
• Buses are fully compliant with the Americans with Disability Act
(ADA) requirements.
• Buses are designed to provide line haul transit service where
passengers are picked up and discharged on a block to block
basis.
• Buses are also designed for express services.
Bus Types cont.

Heavy‐Duty 10-year Transit Bus: GMU shuttle, Private
Shuttles
• Buses must meet all FBTR, including bus testing at the
Altoona bus testing facility for the category of
10‐years/350,000 miles.
• Buses are fully compliant with ADA requirements.
• Buses are typically used for services with lower ridership.
• In many instances, this bus type is used in rural settings.
Bus Types cont.

Medium‐Duty 7-year Transit Bus: Fastran, Paratransit
services
• These buses must meet all FBTR, including bus testing at the
Altoona bus testing facility for the category of 7‐year/200,000
miles.
• Buses are fully compliant with ADA requirements.
• Buses are designed and intended to be used for demand
response operation.
Bus Types cont.

• Heavy-duty 12-year buses are built to buyer specification, only upon order
• Transit properties provide for on-site bus inspectors during the manufacturing
process for Heavy-duty buses, to verify the bus is built per specifications
• Heavy-duty 12-year buses have a monocoque construction design. This type
of construction uses a structural approach in which the body is integral with the
chassis and improves safety, ride quality, and reduces overall vehicle weight
• Heavy-duty 12-year buses are low floor design and use a ramp vs. lift for easy
ADA access and reliability
Bus Manufacturing Process
Buses in-build
phases at
manufacturing
plant

Bus Manufacturing Process cont.
• Heavy-duty 10-year and Medium-duty 7-year buses are built prior to
purchase to manufacturer specification, buy as is.
• Heavy-duty 10-year and Medium-duty 7-year buses are built by a
manufacturer and distributed by dealers.
• Heavy-duty 10-year and Medium-duty 7-year buses are typically built as
a truck on chassis design.
• Heavy-duty 10-year and Medium-duty 7-year buses are typically built
with a high floor design that requires lifts to comply with ADA. These
lifts pose significant cost and maintenance challenges.

• Fairfax Connector uses various
bus sizes
• Depending on route type (feeder,
circulator, neighborhood collector,
line haul or express) and
configuration of streets
New Flyer
NF Excelsior
Orion VII

Fairfax Connector Fleet
Bus Year Manufacturer Life Cycle Seating Length Number in fleet
2007 New Flyer 12 year bus 39 40 foot 52
2008 Orion VII 12 year bus 25 30 foot 26
2010 Excelsior NF 12 year bus 39 40 foot 31

Maintenance Training
• A significant cost of maintaining a commercial bus fleet is hiring and
training a technical work force.
• The heavy-duty 12-year bus manufacturers have in-house training
departments and typically provide training on major bus systems as
part of bus purchases.
• Reduces costs of purchased training from major component
suppliers, and helps engineer the development of in-house training
programs.
• Heavy-duty 10-year, and Medium-duty 7-year vehicles traditionally
do not offer training in the purchase of the bus.
• Fairfax Connector Maintenance Department conducts over 3,000
hours of classroom training each year.
•

Life Cycle Costs
CHART 2
** Cost per bus calculated in 2015 dollars. Excludes; Revenue collection equipment, Radio, IT equipment.
***Costs exclude fuel and tires and employee wages.
***The Fairfax Connector used available data for medium duty buses operated by the Connector in FY 2010.
Higher cost to maintain due to component wear, higher maintenance and inventory costs, and training.
Manufacturer NF El Dorado NF Excelsior
Life cycle years 12 year 7 year 15 Year
Life cycle miles 500,000 200,000 600,000
**Purchase cost $455,000 $155,172 $495,000
Purchase price per year $41,250 $31,034 $33,000
Capital cost per mile $0.91 $0.78 $0.83
***Operating cost per mile $0.18 $0.71 $0.18
Total cost per mile $1.09 $1.49 $1.01
***Annual total cost $43,600 $59,600 $44,801

Conclusions
• Fixed route transit fleets are dominated by heavy duty 12 year vehicles.
• Modifications for bus-on-chassis designs can create maintainability issues.
• Agencies planning to use 7 or 10 year buses must carefully consider the
duty cycle and segregating maintenance activities.
• These bus types are not designed or tested to take the place of heavy duty
buses and will not perform efficiently when used outside of their intended
duty cycle.
• Past Fairfax Connector experience with medium duty buses resulted in
higher maintenance costs and poor reliability.
• Fairfax Connector will continue to evaluate uses for various bus lengths in
accordance with service demand and route types
• Opportunities to use medium duty buses may exist with future route
concepts such as flex routes

Department of Transportation
15
Questions?

Appendix

Bus Procurement
FCDOT purchases buses using an Invitation for Bid (IFB)
process.
• FCDOT utilizes a technical consultant, Parson Brinkerhoff, to assist with
writing of vehicle specifications to help ensure they meet standards
• Evaluate new technologies in the transit industry, such as hybrids, electrical
components, and ITS equipment
• Analyze performance trends in current fleet for improvement
• Payment milestones, 3 payments:
– 25% upon frame completion
– 25% upon shipment to FCDOT
– 50% upon acceptance by FCDOT

Bus Procurement cont.
FCDOT uses a two step process, the first step is a review of the performance
requirements and standard of a bus to include:
• Must meet the Altoona standards for a Heavy-duty large bus
• 15 year bus anticipated life cycle
• Ensure full ADA accessibility
• Low-floor, to provide ease of boarding/alighting for passengers
• Two passenger doors available, to provide lower dwell times and passenger
flexibility
• Training
If a bus meets these minimum standards then the contract is awarded to the
lowest bidder.

Altoona performance test is used in the transit industry to evaluate bus
durability. A bus is rated on the amount of unscheduled issues
experienced during testing. Nine tests are performed on each bus:
• Safety - The objective of this test is to determine handling and stability
characteristics of the bus by measuring the forward speed through a double
lane change, obstacle avoidance course
• Structural Integrity & Durability - There are seven procedures that comprise
this testing sequence: shakedown, Distortion, Static Tow, Dynamic Tow, Jacking,
Hoisting, and Durability.
• Reliability - The objective of this test is to evaluate the reliability of the bus by
documenting unscheduled breakdowns, repairs, down time, and repair time that
occur during testing
Bus Performance and Testing

Bus Performance and Testing, cont.
• Performance - There are two tests that comprise the performance test sequence:
Gradeability and Brake Performance.
• Maintainability - There are three procedures that comprise this test sequence:
Accessibility of Components and Subsystems; Servicing, Preventive Maintenance,
and Repair Maintenance; and Replacement and/or Repair of Selected Subsystems.
• Noise - There are two procedures that comprise this test sequence: Interior Noise
and Exterior Noise.
• Fuel Economy - The objective of this test is to provide accurate comparable fuel
consumption data on transit buses produced by different manufacturers.
• Emissions - The objective of this test is to provide emissions data for transit buses
produced by different manufacturers while operating the vehicle over a simulated
transit duty cycle. The results of this test may be used by transit operators for making
relative comparisons between buses.

Heavy Duty and Medium Duty Transit Bus Analysis

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