It depends on the vehicle's gas tank size and fuel economy. If a school bus had an 80-gallon tank and operated with a fuel economy of about 6 miles per gallon, it could travel about 480 miles. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, the average school bus travels 12,000 miles per year 4.
A typical passenger car carrying one person gets 25 passenger miles per gallon, while a conventional bus at its capacity of 70 (seated and standing) gets 163 passenger miles per gallon. These fuel savings yield commensurate cuts in CO2 emissions.
Transit buses are a LITTLE more fuel-efficient, but not as much as many people might think. A car (24.2 MPG) with the national-average of 1.5 passengers gets 36.3 PPMG (Passenger Miles per Gallon). A transit bus (3.3 MPG) with a national average load (9.1 passengers) gets 30 PPMG.
A typical school bus burns approximately one-half gallon of diesel fuel for each hour it idles. Thus, if a company operates 50 buses and each bus reduces its idling time by 30 minutes per day, at $1per gallon of diesel fuel, the company would save $2,250 per school year in fuel costs.
If a school bus had an 80-gallon tank and operated with a fuel economy of about 6 miles per gallon, it could travel about 480 miles. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, the average school bus travels 12,000 miles per year4.