There’s a new kind of ride coming to the South Bronx — it can travel hundreds of miles on a single refuel, takes only 15 minutes to refuel, and pumps out H2O instead of diesel.
Starting August 2025, two hydrogen fuel-cell electric buses will operate along eight routes in some of the areas with the worst air quality in the city. Representatives leading the initiative announced the timeline at a town hall in the Bronx last month.
To reach its goal of transitioning to a zero-emissions bus fleet, the MTA is working with partners, including Empire Clean Cities and Krueger Transit Consulting, winners of the 2022 New York Clean Transportation Prize competition. They will operate the buses on the BX16, BX24, BX26, BX 28, BX 29, BX30, BX34, and BX38 routes. The buses will refuel at a new hydrogen station at the Gun Hill Road Depot.
Still, local environmental groups are wary of focusing on hydrogen to address longtime issues in the community. Some prefer other clean fleet options and note that a complex environmental justice problem requires equally complex solutions.
Location, asthma, location
It’s no coincidence the routes for this test program include the “Asthma Alley,” a nickname for certain neighborhoods in the South Bronx. Leaders of the pilot chose to focus on the South Bronx after looking at a national environmental justice tool mapping out the most underinvested communities facing the worst pollution in the city. They whittled down the areas based on which also contained a bus depot where hydrogen bus refueling would be feasible, according to an executive.
Mott Haven, Hunts Point, Port Morris, and Morrisania are among those most impacted by air quality issues. Surrounded by highways like the Cross Bronx Expressway and filled with truck depots, waste transfer stations, and power plants, it’s no surprise the area has long struggled with high asthma rates. In Hunts Point, Mott Haven, Highbridge, and Morrisania, asthma-related emergency department visits in 2016 among children ages 5 to 17 was more than double the rate of all other boroughs combined — and nearly 20 times higher than in wealthier neighborhoods like Bayside and Little Neck in Queens.
When he began leading justice efforts in the area years ago, Arif Ullah, executive director of the environmental advocacy organization South Bronx Unite, remembers hearing the same cry from neighbors: “‘I have asthma. My kids have asthma. My parents have asthma.’”
“What they were talking about was the result of this really unjust and unacceptable landscape of polluting infrastructure, and that is high rates of asthma, more than anything else,” Ullah said, adding that air pollution is also linked to chronic health conditions such as heart disease, pneumonia, and lung cancer.
What do trucks have to do with it?
From 2017 to 2020, South Bronx Unite collaborated with environmental health scientists at Columbia University to study the effects of just one “polluting infrastructure”: the FreshDirect warehouse that had opened in Mott Haven in 2018. Researchers looked at changes in pollution levels, truck traffic, and noise after the facility began operations — and the results were concerning.
“We found increases in truck traffic, especially overnight, which is concerning for both air quality and noise pollution,” said Dr. Jenni Shearston, an environmental epidemiologist and first author of the study. While the increase in black carbon levels — a key indicator of air pollution — was relatively small, she stresses that even small increases matter: “In a community already overwhelmed by pollution, the goal should be reducing exposure, not adding to it,” she said.
The study showed that trucks were most active during late-night hours, likely arriving to be loaded for morning deliveries. Researchers saw an increase in truck and vehicle traffic of between 10 and 40% since FreshDirect relocated.
This presents problems that go beyond air pollution. When children are at home or sleeping, Dr. Shearston says the noise from these trucks can disrupt sleep and lead to broader health issues — as Epicenter NYC has previously reported. “Short, loud bursts like truck horns or air brakes can wake people up and impact their health long-term,” she said.
What do warehouses have to do with it?
South Bronx Unite and other environmental groups have long been pressuring Fresh Direct to transition their truck fleet to battery-powered electric vehicles — a promise the company made when seeking community support in 2019.
But FreshDirect’s truck fleet is far from the only major culprit. Every day, an estimated 15,000 trucks move in and out of Hunts Point, but that number is outdated and likely much higher now, according to Kevin García, senior transportation planner at the New York City Environmental Justice Alliance (NYC-EJA). He says the coalition’s partners have seen a big uptick in daily truck trips since before the pandemic, in large part because of these last-mile delivery and mega e-commerce warehouses like Amazon, UPS, and FedEx.
Advocates like García say the Clean Deliveries Act, a piece of legislation currently in the New York State Assembly committee, could hold these warehouses responsible for the pollution caused by their trucks, similar to how power plants are regulated. The law would track the emissions from trucks serving these facilities, which currently operate 24/7 to meet fast delivery demands, often clustering in certain neighborhoods due to zoning rules.
What do diesel buses have to do with it?
When asked whether the hydrogen cell fuel bus pilot to replace some diesel buses would even make a dent — given that truck traffic is perhaps the largest source of air pollution in the South Bronx — the MTA said it’s a good first step.
“The eventual goal is to replace all fossil-fuel based diesel buses with zero-emission buses (battery electric or hydrogen fuel-cell),” according to an email from the MTA. “The addition of two hydrogen fuel-cell buses may not have an overwhelming impact on air quality but we need to start somewhere in order to meet our larger goals.”
Converting diesel buses to hydrogen fuel-celled ones would mean 60 tons of averted carbon emissions per year per bus, according to a Krueger Transit staffer.
The potential benefits of hydrogen fuel cell buses are clear, advocates of the pilot said at the town hall. They emit only water vapor, significantly reducing harmful pollutants compared to diesel buses. Hydrogen buses also offer reduced noise pollution, a factor researchers found significant in the Columbia study of Fresh Direct’s truck fleet.
Beyond hydrogen fuel-cell buses
Still, environmental advocates have raised concerns about the broader implications of hydrogen fuel production.
“Producing hydrogen fuel is very energy-intensive — and, as it stands, more than 95% of hydrogen is produced using fossil fuels,” Ullah says. “Most of those fossil fuel production sites are in low-income communities, in effect perpetuating, if not furthering, pollution in those areas.”
Even “green” hydrogen, produced using renewable energy — as the hydrogen in the pilot program would be, according to Empire Clean Cities — presents challenges, he says. Given the current scarcity of renewable energy, Ullah argues that using it for hydrogen production could divert resources from other vital uses, possibly creating a bottleneck for overall decarbonization.
“We welcome any and all measures and efforts that create more breathable air in the South Bronx,” Ullah said via email. “But NOT if they are at the expense of another frontline community, wherever they may be.”
Local environmental justice experts say addressing air pollution in the South Bronx requires more than just new buses. It calls for coordinated efforts from various sectors, including stricter regulations on truck emissions, transitioning warehouse fleets to zero-emission vehicles, and legislation to hold major polluters accountable.
As the hydrogen bus pilot moves forward, experts say it’s just one piece of a bigger picture. “We want to see real renewable energy being employed to address the air quality crisis in the South Bronx, and we stand in solidarity with all pollution-burdened communities,” Ullah said.
