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“And it reduces greenhouse gas emissions both through encouraging use of transit and through converting diesel to natural gas.”

The $174-million facility was designed and built through a public-private partnership with Plenary Infrastructure, which will maintain the facility for the next 30 years; funding was contributed by all three orders of government.

Following an initial order of 30 to 40 CNG-fuelled buses in 2018, the city has had to somewhat scale back its plan to purchase more CNG buses over the next four years due to budgetary constraints.

The city said buses will have to be used “past their optimum life” of 16 years and will incur additional maintenance costs, according to budget documents for 2019-22.

However, last week saw the province announce new funds to support the purchase of an additional 52 CNG buses in Calgary through the Alberta Community Transit Fund.

“This facility means more Calgarians will benefit from efficient, safe and environmentally friendly public transit, spending less time in traffic and easily getting to where they need to go,” Transportation Minister Brian Mason said in a statement Tuesday.

The city has carefully studied its options when it comes to replacing older model diesel buses and is currently looking at a mix of fuel sources to power transit in the future, including electricity.

The main goal is reducing costs and greenhouse gas emissions, Nenshi said.

“We have an agnostic strategy toward the greening of our fleet,” Nenshi said.

“In some instances, CNG makes a tonne of sense, particularly through the winter months. We’ve been testing it extensively. Electric buses probably need one more generation before they can become as reliable as CNG, but as we convert our fleet, electric and CNG will both be an important part of it.”

mpotkins@postmedia.com

Twitter: @mpotkins