October 10, 2016. The New Castle Planning Commission, Pennsylvania, gave its blessing to a proposed compressed gas station (CNG) at the city bus garage. The New Castle Area Transit Authority is gradually phasing in vehicles that will be powered by natural gas.
The New Castle Planning Commission has given the green light for a conditional use request for a compressed natural gas station to be built at the Mahoning Avenue bus terminal. The planning commission, an advisory board, reviewed the plans on Wednesday. Approval of the request must come from New Castle City Council.
Attorney Lou Perrotta, New Castle Area Transit Authority solicitior, said the local authority’s site at 311 Mahoning Avenue was one of 29 transit facilities selected by the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation to operate and maintain a compressed natural fueling station. These facilities will be designed and built — at no cost to the local facility — over the next five years. The New Castle station will be one of seven to include a public fueling facility that will be open to commercial vehicles. Construction is expected to begin next year.
The project, using Pennsylvania’s natural gas resources will result in greater efficiencies for transit agencies and will establish a foothold for converted natural gas transportation market. The conversion to compressed natural gas from gasoline or Diesel could save $10 million statewide, Perrotta said.
Earlier this year, state officials announced a $84.5 million private-public partnership project to pay for fueling stations and retrofit or replace the transit agencies’ maintenance and storage facilities to make them compatible with natural gas buses.
