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Exclusive- tour de fumes


FamousNYLover

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I not sure if this goes to USA topic or off-topic.

Is it true that all Double-Decker bus suppose to be reduce emissions by Jan 1st, 2007 (including Grayline, CitySight NY, Big Taxi Tour, and Donbu Tour Co's charter Double-Decker Bus?)

 

New York Post

By ANGELA MONTEFINISE

 

 

Posted: 4:23 am

October 12, 2008

 

Big Apple tour buses are brazenly swerving around city laws requiring greener emissions, a new report shows.

 

The 11 sightseeing companies were supposed to retrofit their vehicles - including duck boats, tour shuttles and street-clogging double-deckers - to pump out less pollution by Jan. 1, 2007.

 

The deadline was set by a local May 2005 law requiring all diesel-powered tour buses with engines at least 3 years old to implement the latest technology to keep the city cleaner.

 

But, according to a recent progress report by the Department of Environmental Protection, only one of the 11 companies performed any conversions by the deadline, leaving only 19 of the 206 vehicles on the road up to standards.

 

As of August, 61 buses had undergone the up to $7,000 retrofitting process - still only about 30 percent.

 

Gray Line New York City Tours, which runs 110 red double-decker buses, often found idling in Times Square while packed with camera-toting tourists, has been the only company to retrofit buses so far.

 

Six other companies have taken initial steps toward conversion, and three have done nothing, the city said.

 

Another bus company went belly up.

 

Double-decker buses belch up to six times the diesel pollution of city buses - producing 17.7 grams of diesel particles per mile, compared with 0.7 grams from new city buses and 4.5 grams from the oldest city buses, according to a 1999 study by the Northeast Advanced Vehicle Consortium.

 

A Gray Line bus evaluated as part of the study was found to emit about 25 times more diesel particles than the average bus.

 

In its report, released in August, the DEP said the city would "discuss nonrenewal" of licenses for bus companies that have "done nothing to come into compliance." No licenses have been revoked yet.

 

City Comptroller William Thompson cited a "very disturbing lack of progress and widespread noncompliance with the law" in an Oct. 8 letter to the DEP.

 

He slammed the agency for submitting its report - the first of what are supposed to be annual updates on the conversions - eight months after a January 2008 deadline.

 

The 2005 law set "achievable goals, giving companies more than a year and a half after its passage to use the best available retrofit," Thompson wrote.

 

"The delays in abiding by the law appear extensive. I urge your office to be more vigilant."

 

The DEP said that it was working on a new report that would show better compliance with the law and that both it and the Department of Consumer Affairs were working to enforce the law.

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