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WINSTON-SALEM – The Winston-Salem Transit Authority unveiled its new hybrid buses Monday morning.

The 10 bright green diesel-electric buses will be put into service soon. Transportation officials hope the buses will mean big savings for the city.

“They are environmentally friendly. There is less pollution with these buses and we are also saving the taxpayers money,” WSTA General Manager Art Barnes said.

In fact, city officials hope it will save a lot of money.

“They should almost double our fuel efficiency for our bus fleet, which is a remarkable savings for the taxpayers here in Winston-Salem on an annual basis on the fuel,” City Council Member Dan Besse said.

The city purchased 10 of these buses with 10 more on the way. Each bus costs about $600,000, 90 percent of which was paid for with federal money. The 20 buses make up a little less than half of the transit authority's large bus fleet. Officials say from here on out, they will only be purchasing hybrid buses. It's a total $12.8 million investment into the city's transportation.

“We're looking at a 2-and-a-half-year payback, so in 2-and-a-half years we will have recovered what we've paid for in these buses,” Barnes said.

The buses feature GPS automated stop announcements and a low floor design to make it more accessible. Officials say it will benefit the passengers.

“We have quite a few people riding buses now and some of the areas where the economy is bad, if we did not have buses then people would not get to work. So we would hope that this would benefit the area and the citizens,” City Council Member Vivian Burke said.