here come the electric buses

Make way for electric buses.

US Department of Transportation and Federal Transit Administration dispatching $1.7 billion from President Joe Biden’s bipartisan infrastructure law Funding will be provided to 46 states and territories to acquire 1,700 buses – more than half of which will be zero-emissions models.

The new awards will bring the total number of zero-emission buses funded by the Infrastructure Act to 1,800, more than double the number of clean buses on the road today. It still represents only a fraction of the roughly 60,000 buses currently in operation in the US, but officials called it an important step toward updating the country’s aging transit fleet with a view to fighting climate change.

“This is an unprecedented level of investment when it comes to getting modern clean buses on the road,” US Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg told a briefing with reporters. “These projects will improve and increase bus service and bus reliability, allowing more people to get where they need to on time and in a cost-effective manner. And it would reduce the cost to local taxpayers. It is a better journey when you are on one of these clean buses.

Each awardee is set to receive millions of dollars to purchase new buses, update garage facilities to install charging infrastructure, and retrain drivers and mechanics to assist with their upkeep and maintenance. The funds, which will be given to urban and rural communities as well as Indian reservations, are being distributed from FTA’s grants for buses and bus facilities and low- and no-emission vehicle programs.

Examples include $104 million to the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority to convert its Lorton, Virginia, bus garage into an EV-supporting facility; $33.5 million to King County Metro Transit in Seattle, Washington, to purchase approximately 30 battery-electric buses; And Iowa City was given $23.3 million to replace four diesel buses with electric models.

The Biden administration was quick to publicize the economic development benefits of its clean bus investment. According to Buttigieg, all acquired buses will be manufactured in the US, and the money will also be invested in workforce development to ensure that transit employees have the skills to operate and maintain this new generation of vehicles.

But not all new models will be zero-emissions. At least half of the buses will be powered by natural gas or “another fuel source that makes our air less toxic,” said Veronica Winterpool, FTA’s deputy administrator.

“We know that for some agencies zero emissions is not the solution yet,” Vanterpool said. “But they want to replace their old diesel or gasoline buses with something better for their community.”

With last year’s announcement, there are now 3,300 new vehicles on the road that are either zero-emissions or powered by less polluting forms of fuel. Today’s announcement includes an additional 700 zero-emission buses, including battery-electric and hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles.

transit agencies continue struggle to retrieve riders in the years following the pandemic. Challenges such as changing passenger habits, staffing shortages and declining revenues are plaguing most transit systems in the US. Experts continue to worry about the potential for a transit “death spiral”—a cycle of terrible service that leads to fewer riders, which leads to even more terrible service, and so on.

It is unclear whether cleaner buses will necessarily improve the future of transit, although some would dispute that it is better for the environment and the health of people living in the communities served by transit. some critics have argued This money would be better spent on improving the service rather than buying an expensive new fleet – especially as production of these new buses is still a work in progress.

For example, Nova Bus, a Canadian manufacturer that makes zero-emissions models, recently announced that it would closing your facility in upstate New York to refocus on their locations in Quebec.

But Buttigieg said cleaner buses go hand in hand with better service and reliability. “We are committing historic funding to make public transport cleaner, safer, more reliable and more resilient,” he said, “because it is absolutely essential to our daily lives.”