Q. Metro Transit started using hybrid buses about a year ago. How are they working out? Is the fuel consumption about what was expected? Have they required more or less maintenance than nonhybrid buses?

A. The public has been enthusiastic about the new buses, said Metro spokesman Mick Rusch.

"They're very, very popular," Rusch said. "People really like the fact that they are very quiet, and they reduce pollution. They do not smell like a diesel bus."

The hybrids -- made by Gillig Corp., of Hayward, Calif., with an electric drive system by General Motors -- run on electricity and ultra-low-sulfur diesel fuel. They produce only about 10 percent of the pollution of regular buses, Rusch said.

Electricity is generated when the bus driver hits the brakes, and then is stored in a battery at the top of the bus. Forty percent of the energy used to accelerate the bus is energy saved during the braking process.

The hybrids cost about $495,000, or about $185,000 more than one of the 195 regular buses in Metro's fleet. "But as (fuel) prices keep getting higher and higher, we are getting closer to (the) break-even (point)," Rusch said. The federal government picked up 80 percent of the cost.

So far, the hybrids have used about 30 percent less diesel fuel than the newest regular buses, purchased in 2006. Maintenance also costs less. The 1-year-old hybrids needed only about $1,000 in parts and $4,600 in labor during the second quarter of 2008, compared with $3,600 in parts and $6,000 in labor for five of the 2-year-old regular buses.

Overall, the hybrids cost 79 cents per mile or 17 percent less than the regular buses, which cost 95 cents per mile during the April-June quarter.

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