"From Horses to Hydrogen"

Years ago, when the 93-year-old father of Greater New Haven Transit District's executive director Donna Carter was growing up on an Iowa farm, one of his main modes of transportation was horses.

Not long ago when he was visiting his daughter, he demanded a ride on the GNHTD's new "HyRide" hydrogen bus, Carter said.

"It dawned on me," she said, "we have taken them from horses to hydrogen."

Years in the making, the Greater New Haven Transit District's first hydrogen bus was on display Tuesday, and a host of federal, state and local officials heralded the alternative-fuel vehicle as the town's link to the future.

The bus will be used in the town's senior citizen transportation program, which gives seniors rides to the Senior Center, doctor's appointments, shopping and errands.

For five years GNHTD officials worked with state and federal officials, as well as private businesses, to amass the $3 million in funding needed for the project, which is the first of several clean energy vehicles that will be unveiled in the coming months and years. The money is for the purchase price of the bus plus maintenance and operating costs.

Children from Sleeping Giant Day Care opened the program with their rendition of "The Wheels on the Bus Go Round and Round," which, Gov. Dannel Malloy joked,