Motor Coach Industries and Udall Foundation Begin 26-City Eco-Journey From Capitol Hill, Promoting Cleaner Transportation
WASHINGTON, June 12 -- To demonstrate how "green" riding a motor coach can be, Motor Coach Industries has teamed up with Vermont's Lamoille Valley Transportation in the Udall Legacy Bus Tour, which kicked off on Capitol Hill today beginning a cross-country tour promoting cleaner transportation. The Udall Legacy Tour is taking 13 Udall scholars on a 54-day, cross-country eco-journey, covering 8,606 miles to highlight innovative public-service environmental activities in 26 cities, plus six national parks and six Native American communities. The scholars are riding in an MCI(R) J4500 LX motor coach equipped with a 2007 clean-diesel Caterpillar engine fueled with a 20-percent bio diesel, 80-percent ultra low sulfur diesel blend. The bus also features emissions-monitoring hardware; real-time data, along with video blogs, posted on the tour's website, http://www.udall.gov/.
Even when running on conventional fuels, according to the American Bus Association, fully occupied motor coaches use less energy per passenger mile than planes, trains or automobiles. And this year, as clean diesel technology and bio-diesel fuels gain prominence, the motor coach becomes an even greener way to go. (Check out the white-handkerchief test on our "Breathe Easier" video < http://www.mcicoach.com/AboutUs/videos.htm > to see the difference in air quality the use of the cleaner fuel can make.)
"We not only want to win over the environmentally conscientious, we want people to know how luxurious it can be traveling by motor coach," said Patricia Ziska, MCI vice president and chief customer officer. "Passengers can sit back and relax, work on their computers, watch the news or whatever, and they're in a much more comfortable environment than their car."
Riding an MCI is not an austere experience. Instead, the MCI J4500 LX offers a level of comfort associated more with living rooms than highways, with reclining leather seats, seat-back video screens, Internet hookups and a separate conference area, all accessed by the coach's dramatic spiral entryway.
Motor Coach Industries is participating in the tour with Lamoille Valley Transportation, a charter company from Morrisville, Vermont. Lamoille Valley has been working with the University of Vermont for the past two years researching the impact of alternative fuels and the ways in which a motor coach operator can become carbon-neutral. On June 21, 2007 Lamoille Valley will receive the University's first-ever "Green Coach Certification," for the company's use of bio-diesel fuel and its purchase of carbon-offset credits, "making Lamoille Valley the first carbon-neutral motor coach charter company in the world," said Dave Kestenbaum, senior program manager for the University of Vermont Tourism Data Center. Lamoille Valley and the University of Vermont plan to extend their research work and certification program industry wide, and will be responsible for further emissions research while on the Udall Tour.
The tour marks the 10th anniversary of the Udall Foundation's education programs. Along the way, MCI will be promoting the motor coach as an energy efficient way to travel, as the 13 riders participate in local public service projects, such as revegetation work along the Bronx River in New York, replanting trees in New Orleans, campground development on the Grand Ronde Reservation in Oregon and exploring national parks through photography with local youth in Acadia National Park, Maine. The Morris K. Udall Foundation is an independent federally created agency based in Tucson that awards the premier merit-based scholarships, fellowships and internships for studies related to the environment and Native American policy in the United States. The Foundation includes the U.S. Institute for Environmental Conflict Resolution, which provides mediation and related services to help resolve federal environmental disputes nationwide.
The tour will end August 4 in Tucson, Arizona. For specific environmental activities at each stop, visit http://www.udall.gov/. The tour itinerary follows below.
With headquarters in Schaumburg, Illinois, and sales and service centers across the U.S. and in Canada, MCI is the leading designer, manufacturer and marketer of coaches and the industry's leading supplier of coach-related aftermarket parts and services for most makes and models for the North American market. http://www.mcicoach.com/
JUNE 12: Washington, DC (Kick-off event) 13: Philadelphia, PA 14-15: New York City, NY 16-17: Boston, MA 18: Bar Harbor, ME 19: Acadia National Park 20-21: Burlington, VT 22-23: Ithaca, NY 25: State College, PA 27: West Lafayette, IN 28-29: Chicago, IL JULY 01: Nashville, TN 03-05: New Orleans, LA 06: Houma, LA 08-09: Oklahoma City, OK 10: Lawrence, KS 12-13: Boulder/Denver, CO 15-16: Grand Teton National Park 17: Yellowstone National Park 18-19: Missoula/Flathead, MT 21-23: Seattle, WA 24: Portland, OR 25: Grand Ronde, OR 26: Redwood National Park 28-29: San Francisco, CA 30: Monterey Bay, CA 31: Yosemite National Park AUGUST 02-03: Phoenix, AZ 03-05: Tucson, AZ (Event ends on August 4)
