Buses US

This document contains preliminary numbers for economic data for US diesel and natural gas buses. It alwasy assumed that a number is valid for both diesel and natural gas buses unless otherwise stated.

Bold font rows are the final datapoints.

The values are good approximations, but they may still be subject to change. Some cost data points have a timestamp whilst others don’t. If it does it will always be converted to 2023 dollar and if not we have assumed that the uncertainty in the data itself balances out potential inflation effects on the cost

Asset Metrics

Table 1

* Most frequent value for 'Useful life benchmark'. Assumption: valid for buses of all fuel types.
† Assumptions: valid for buses of all fuel types. Using pre-pandemic number.
‡Converted from miles to kilometer

A number in parentheses represents the row in question

$\displaystyle §\text{Product of } (0), (1)$

$\displaystyle ¶\text{Product of } (0), (2)$

**Rounded to the nearest thousand

References

[1]: Federal Transit Administration File: 2020 Revenue Vehicle Inventory 
 https://www.transit.dot.gov/ntd/data-product/2020-database-files
[2]: Bureau of Transportation Statistics 
 https://www.bts.gov/content/bus-fuel-consumption-and-travel

CAPEX

Table 2

* An average compressed natural gas bus costs between $540,000 to $580,000

References

[1]: Colorado Department of Transportation, Intercity bus 
 https://www.codot.gov/programs/innovativemobility/assets/commuterchoices/documents/trandir_transit.pdf
[2]: The National Renewable Energy Laboratory. 
 https://www.nrel.gov/state-local-tribal/blog/posts/fuel-cell-electric-buses-in-the-usa.html
[3]: Forbes magazine 
 https://www.forbes.com/sites/sebastianblanco/2018/08/31/84-million-electric-buses/

OPEX

Table 3

* Assumed to be valid for both natrual gas and diesel buses
† Cost per distance is included in this number, hence the cost per distance parameter is set to zero
‡Converted from USD / mile to USD / kilometer

A number in parentheses represents the row in question

$\displaystyle §\text{Product of } (0), (1)$

$\displaystyle ¶\text{Product of } (4), (2)$

**Rounded to the nearest thousand
††Rounded to the nearest tenth

References

[1]: U.S. Department of Transportation, table 2 
 https://www.transportation.gov/sites/dot.gov/files/docs/Intercity%20Bus%20Service%20Report%20%20Final.pdf
[2]: Inflation calculator using official records published by the U.S. Department of Labor 
 https://www.in2013dollars.com/us/inflation/2005?amount=10000000000
[3]: National Renewable Energy Laboratory  
 https://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy06osti/37626.pdf
[4]: National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Table ES-1 
 https://afdc.energy.gov/files/u/publication/financial_analysis_be_transit_buses.pdf
[5]: See Appendix 1

Particle emissions

Electric buses has no exhaust emission but is assumed to have the same wear and tear numbers as the other bus types

Table 4

* Assumed to be the entire fleet of diesel buses
† Next to no PM emissions
‡ Assumed to be diesel and natural gas buses and assumed to be zero
§Converted from gram/mile to gram / kilometer

A number in parentheses represents the row in question

$\displaystyle ¶\text{Product of } (5), (10)$

$\displaystyle **\text{Sum of } (8), (9)$

††Rounded to the nearest ten thousandth
‡‡Rounded to the nearest hundredth

References

[1]: The California Air Resources Board, table 1 
 https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/sites/default/files/2020-06/Congestion_Mitigation_Air%20_Quality_Improvement_Program_emission_factor_tables_sept2019.pdf
[2]: U.S. DEPARTMENT of ENERGY, OFFICE of ENERGY EFFICIENCY and RENEWABLE ENERGY 
 https://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy00osti/28377.pdf

Externalities

Electric buses is assumed to be noiseless and have the same accident cost as the other bus types

Table 5

* Includes medically related costs, emergency services costs, property damage costs, lost productivity, and the monetized value of the pain, suffering, and quality of life that the family loses because of a death or injury
† Assumption
‡Converted from mile to kilometer

A number in parentheses represents the row in question

$\displaystyle §\text{Product of } (0), (1), (3)$

$\displaystyle ¶(9) / (8)$

$\displaystyle **\text{Product of } (4), (5)$

††Rounded to the nearest hundredth
‡‡Rounded to the nearest thousandth

References

[1]: Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, table 11 
 https://www.fmcsa.dot.gov/sites/fmcsa.dot.gov/files/docs/RevisedCostLargeTruckBusCrashes2002.pdf
[2]: Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, table 8 
 https://www.fmcsa.dot.gov/sites/fmcsa.dot.gov/files/docs/RevisedCostLargeTruckBusCrashes2002.pdf
[3]: Federal Transit Administration, Only buses (MB). 1997 assumed to be approximatly accurate since the crash data is calculated using data from 1990-1999 
 https://www.transit.dot.gov/ntd/data-product/1997-annual-database-408
[4]: Inflation calculator using official records published by the U.S. Department of Labor 
 https://www.in2013dollars.com/us/inflation/2005?amount=10000000000
[5]: Victoria Transport Policy Institute, Table 5.11.7-1 
 https://www.vtpi.org/tca/tca0511.pdf

Appendix

This table includes the cost from Services, Other, Taxes and Miscellaneous cost from the federal bus fleet. We assume that the cost per bus is the same regardless how owns it. We also assume that all buses listed below can be seen as diesel buses

Appendix 1

A number in parentheses represents the row in question

$\displaystyle *\text{Sum of } (0), (1), (2), (3), (4), (5), (6), (7), (8), (9), (10), (11)$

$\displaystyle †(13) / (12)$

‡Rounded to the nearest whole

References

[1]: File: Operating Expenses_Static, Tab: Summary Tables by Type 
 https://www.transit.dot.gov/ntd/data-product/2020-database-files
[2]: Federal Transit Administration, File: vehicles _statics 
 https://www.transit.dot.gov/ntd/data-product/2020-database-files