Central Florida Regional Transportation Authority (LYNX) and Nopetro, a compressed natural gas (CNG) fueling infrastructure provider in Florida, have signed the contract for a CNG fueling stations PPP project.

Nopetro will be responsible for the development operation, and maintenance of a new compressed natural gas fueling station and the upgrade of the adjacent facility. The project also includes the conversion of the public bus fleet to CNG.

Under the terms of the agreement, LYNX will purchase or lease an initial amount of 35 CNG buses and is expected to have more than 150 CNG buses within the next 5 years. The 150 CNG buses would represent half of its current pool of 300 diesel vehicles.

John M. Lewis Jr., CEO of LYNX, stated:

"Once again, LYNX is at the forefront of the nationwide movement to build sustainable public transportation systems. Switching to CNG makes sense both financially and environmentally for Central Florida transit, and Nopetro's collaboration made an easy choice even easier."

Orange County Mayor Teresa Jacobs, Chair of the LYNX Board of Directors, commented:

"This partnership will positively impact the 30 million riders who utilize LYNX public transportation services each year, as they travel throughout Orange, Seminole and Osceola counties. Converting our buses to run on CNG is part of our continuing efforts to improve operations through innovative technologies."

Jorge Herrera, co-founder and CEO of Nopetro, added:

"We are proud to work with LYNX and look forward to helping the agency continue to offer affordable public transportation services while creating a cleaner environment. The switch from diesel to CNG will spur significant savings and position LYNX ahead of the curve across the country."

In November 2014 Pasco County School District, Florida, announced that it was looking into a possible public private partnership (P3) to develop a compressed natural gas (CNG) project.

Also in November, Pennsylvania's Public Private Transportation Partnership Office launched a request for qualification (RFQ) for the development clean-burning compressed natural gas (CNG) fueling stations at public transit agencies.