BUTLER TWP — The Butler Transit Authority will have a compressed natural gas fueling station by 2019.

“We’re very excited that this is moving forward, and PennDOT’s done an excellent job in securing this bid across the commonwealth to provide these stations,” said John Paul, executive director of the authority.

“We’ll be excited to move into the CNG world as this is a naturally grown fuel for the area. Obviously there’s plenty of natural gas in this area and it will be good to use Pennsylvania fuel for our vehicles.”

The authority will get its facility under the state Department of Transportation’s Public-Private Partnership project run by The Trillum CNG team. There will be 29 public transit agency sites statewide funded under the 20-year agreement, which will cost $84.5 million.

Having the CNG station Paul said, “will reduce our cost of operations for fuel once we have all the vehicles replaced, and once we’re using CNG buses hopefully it will give PennDot reason to allow commuting to Pittsburgh. (We have) five coach buses for that service.”

Paul added, “It changes how we’re going to do business, and hopefully when or if they’re going to put in the public access facility, that would help residents of central Butler County who want to use CNG to operate their vehicles to give them public access.”

While the planned date for the fueling station is 2019, Paul said the authority hopes to move up the process.

The authority has one CNG bus, and wants to buy five more. It takes 20 months to deliver the buses, but the CNG buses can’t be used until the storage facility is properly retrofitted for them.

The facilities need to have certain equipment in case of a gas leak.

If the station would come a year early, Paul said that fueling would be out of temporary tank trucks.

Regional counties also will get CNG stations. The schedule for those is:

n 2017: The Westmoreland County Transportation Authority; the New Castle Area Transportation Authority, including public fueling; and the Beaver County Transportation Authority, including public fueling.

n 2019: The Mercer County Regional Council of Governments

n 2021: The Port Authority of Allegheny County.