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Amtrak just rolled out its first-ever electric bus
electrek.co ^ | August 21, 2023 | Michelle Lewis

Posted on 08/21/2023 10:01:33 PM PDT by lowbridge

Amtrak has replaced a diesel-powered bus on the Pacific Northwest’s Cascades route with its first electric bus.

Amtrak, which partnered with the Washington Department of Transportation (WSDOT) to roll out its new electric bus, will run it between Seattle and Bellingham, filling the gap between the morning and evening trains on the Cascades route. It uses buses all over the US to run thruway connecting services, which are scheduled to connect with Amtrak trains.

Amtrak’s first electric bus is a 45-foot Van Hool CX45e. It has a 660 kWh Proterra lithium-ion battery system and 260 miles of range. It’s owned by coach operator MTRWestern, and it can make the nearly 200-mile round trip on a single charge. The charging hub, which features ABB EV chargers, is at MTRWestern’s Seattle facilities, where large petroleum tanks used to be stored.

The electric bus used on the Cascades route will save approximately 10,000 gallons of diesel fuel per year, cutting CO2 emissions by 109 tons annually, according to Amtrak, which has pledged to become net zero by 2045.

(Excerpt) Read more at electrek.co ...


TOPICS: Chit/Chat; Travel
KEYWORDS: amtrak; cascade; climatechange; climatechangehoax; globalwarming; globalwarminghoax; magicbus; netzero; proterra
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To: lowbridge

I thought Amtrak was a rail company.

Busses???


21 posted on 08/22/2023 4:00:01 AM PDT by Red6
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To: Tupelo

That’s normal today.

Then government subsidizes the unions retirements, or levies a 2% sales tax on everything as in DFW to help pay for their BS public transit system, or pumps money into them in the form of “infrastructure” spending... But it gets really funny when these semi government entities donate for political candidates and parties that support more government spending!!!

https://railroads.dot.gov/about-fra/communications/newsroom/press-releases/usdot-biden-administration-deliver-43-billion-0


22 posted on 08/22/2023 4:06:50 AM PDT by Red6
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To: lowbridge

I can’t imagine the size of the battery(s) and the charging time involved. And the possible explosion and fires.


23 posted on 08/22/2023 4:34:27 AM PDT by Carriage Hill (A society grows great when old men plant trees, in whose shade they know they will never sit.)
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To: jonrick46

Yup, all of that weight will degrade and destroy roads
Plus, the tires will wear out faster. The higher frequency of more expensive tire changes will increase variable cost per mile to operate the junk


24 posted on 08/22/2023 4:47:33 AM PDT by Steven Tyler
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To: Red6

Amtrak operates busses for when the trains break down or are blocked, or to extend service between two rail lines.

It is a bigger deal on the West Coast, where freight lines are so much more important.


25 posted on 08/22/2023 6:03:13 AM PDT by texas booster (Join FreeRepublic's Folding@Home team (Team # 36120) Cure Alzheimer's!)
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To: lowbridge

I give it a month before the bus breaks down and has to be replaced with a regular bus.


26 posted on 08/22/2023 6:43:45 AM PDT by EastTexasTraveler
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To: chajin

“Not counting the belching coal furnaces of the power company, of course.”

They have scrubbers.


27 posted on 08/22/2023 6:56:10 AM PDT by dljordan
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To: lowbridge

Amtrak hasn’t made a profit from 1972 and now this bonus round.


28 posted on 08/22/2023 7:45:03 AM PDT by Vaduz (....)
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To: texas booster

Yep. I take Amtrak from Salem, OR to Seattle. At some times of day, Salem to Portland is a bus, which connects with the Amtrak Cascades.


29 posted on 08/22/2023 7:51:07 AM PDT by Inspectorette
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To: ConservativeInPA

Yup ...

https://www.bangordailynews.com/2023/08/18/business/proterra-portland-transit-electric-bus-manufacturer-bankruptcy/


30 posted on 08/22/2023 8:11:13 AM PDT by CapnJack ( )
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To: CapnJack

Yep. We’re suckers. A Solyndra by another name.


31 posted on 08/22/2023 8:17:50 AM PDT by ConservativeInPA (The Delay Trump’s trial, delay. Elect Trump President. Trump pardons himself. )
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To: Red6

Thruway service has been operating for decades, whether to fill “gaps” left by railroads closing or to supposedly supplement rail service that can’t operate due to freight traffic occupying time slots on the railroad.


32 posted on 08/22/2023 8:26:02 AM PDT by Olog-hai ("No Republican, no matter how liberal, is going to woo a Democratic vote." -- Ronald Reagan, 1960)
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To: Vaduz

No passenger rail can, thanks to regulations in place for a span of time now approaching a century but particularly aggravated post-WWII.


33 posted on 08/22/2023 8:27:49 AM PDT by Olog-hai ("No Republican, no matter how liberal, is going to woo a Democratic vote." -- Ronald Reagan, 1960)
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To: EastTexasTraveler

It should be fun getting parts from a bankrupt company.

Lol.


34 posted on 08/22/2023 8:27:55 AM PDT by cgbg (Claiming that laws and regs that limit “hate speech” stop freedom of speech is “hate speech”.)
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To: Tupelo

“ Amtrak, which partnered with the Washington Department of Transportation (WSDOT)”

Aren’t WSDOT the same idiots who disposed of a beached whale carcass with dynamite with disastrous and some what hilarious results?


35 posted on 08/22/2023 8:46:43 AM PDT by The Great RJ ( )
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To: Olog-hai

Santa Fe went BNSF for a reason


36 posted on 08/22/2023 12:21:35 PM PDT by Vaduz (....)
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To: Governor Dinwiddie

“...chemically Lithium is a cousin of magnesium, another highly reactive alkaline earth metal.”

Strictly speaking, lithium is an *alkali* metal (like sodium), because it has one available electron, while magnesium has two.
And it is so reactive, pure lithium has to be stored away from oxygen, including air.

Magnesium is very interesting. If you lower a burning magnesium ribbon into a jar of CO2, it continues to burn ... and gives off black smoke! In other words, it grabs the oxygen right out of the CO2 and leaves the C. Talk about “carbon emissions” -:)


37 posted on 08/22/2023 3:36:13 PM PDT by powerset
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To: powerset
Thank you for brushing up my chemistry! And that's an amazing story about magnesium "burning" CO2. As for lithium batteries, they don't even allow them to be shipped by air cargo. Who would be crazy enough to park an EV in their attached garage?

38 posted on 08/22/2023 7:45:42 PM PDT by Governor Dinwiddie (LORD, grant thy people grace to withstand the temptations of the world, the flesh, and the devil.)
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