Restored Green Line serivce is good for the environment.

Zero-emission, non-polluting vehicles LRVs contribute to a clean environment. They emit no pollutants in the neighborhoods they serve and are significantly cleaner regionally than motor buses.

Lower levels of noise pollution LRVs operate at 10 decibels below the decibel level of diesel buses. (MBTA statistics) Recently, the MBTA estimated that current diesel buses serving Centre Street operate at 81 decibels and CNG buses would operate at 82 decibels.

Removal of over 400 motor buses daily from Centre and South Streets. These diesel buses, which often travel in bunches of three and four, spew tens of thousands of pounds of particulate matter and nitrous oxides into the air of Jamaica Plain every year. Even CNG buses, while emitting lower levels of particulate matter and nitrous oxides, actually emit far higher levels of methane and other greenhouse gases contributing to damage to the ozone layer.

But the few bus enthusiasts still claim that buses can be as green as rail. They're wrong! All internal combustion CNG and diesel bus engines pollute the neighborhoods in which they operate. LRVs are zero-emission electric vehicles; they do not pollute the neighborhoods in which they operate. It is true that power plants that supply the electricity to run LRVs emit pollutants. But power plants are not located in residential neighborhoods and their emissions can be more easily monitored and scrubbed. They can also take advantage of new technologies that produce electricity using wind and solar power. Internal combustion CNG and diesel bus engines could never do that.

Further, while claiming that buses can be clean, bus enthusiasts propose putting 400 route 39 buses daily onto downtown streets. Adding these 400 60-foot articulated buses every day to traffic along Boylston Street and into downtown simply exacerbates already existing congestion and the resultant pollution in the core of the city. Route 39 service can never be as green as rail, and bus enthusiasts know that.

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