Tkazyik, ready to board one of the new hybrids

POUGHKEEPSIE – City officials in Poughkeepsie were like proud parents Wednesday as they rolled out one of four new diesel-electric hybrid buses they just purchased.

Standing with other city officials in front of one of the buses, Mayor John Tkazyik said the vehicles will add to the “greening” of the city and save taxpayers money.

“As you know during these tough economic times, transit has become a big part of the day to day lives of our citizens and bringing in this clean fuel emissions here with these electric hybrids as well as keeping costs down and providing good transit opportunities for our residents is what’s important,” he said. “Many of our seniors and workers daily depend on these efforts.”

Some 387,000 individual bus trips have been conducted on the city’s transit buses last year.

The hybrid buses will operate the same as hybrid cars. From one mile to 17 miles per hour, the buses will operate on electricity. From 18 to 30 miles per hour, they will operate with a combination of electricity and diesel fuel and speeds above 30 miles per hour would see the buses use diesel fuel.

Assistant Public Works Superintendent Stanley Merritt said the city should see a seven percent savings with the hybrid buses.

Most of the cost of the four vehicles is covered by federal and state dollars.

They will be added to the seven diesel transit buses in the city’s fleet.