April 8, 2010

Colonial Williamsburg Switches to Alternative Transportation (Text Version)

This is a text version of the video segment Colonial Williamsburg Switches to Alternative Transportation, which aired on April 8, 2010.

JOHN DAVIS: Our success story this week takes us back in time to Colonial Williamsburg, where natural gas-powered transit buses seem a bit out of place in this hotbed of 18th-century Americana.

The popular living-history museum has been using alt-fuel vehicles to transport visitors since 1995. Their bus service center—just down the road—houses close to 20 buses with an easy-to-use CNG filling station nearby.

Colonial Williamsburg also uses three electric mini-trucks for their landscaping and hotel maintenance needs. The pint-sized vehicles can only go 25 miles an hour—an ideal speed for travel on Williamsburg grounds. Workers plug it into a regular outlet to charge their batteries overnight and can use it the following morning for a full day's work.

Colonial Williamsburg has been at the forefront of the alt-fuel movement—combining our love of America's past with greener technologies for America's future.