This summer, Lane Transit District in Eugene and TriMet in Portland both obtained funding to add electric buses to their transit fleets, cutting both air pollution and costs. Lane Transit District estimates the purchase will reduce lifetime fuel and maintenance costs by nearly $500,000 per bus, while TriMet’s grant will replace four diesel buses, which together burn through 35,000 gallons of fuel a year. Check out the full article below from the Register-Guard explaining how Lane Transit District’s zero-emission buses will help the city go green while saving some green.
“The federal Department of Transportation has awarded Lane Transit District a grant totaling nearly $3.5 million to buy and deploy five additional “zero-emission” electric buses, U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio and the transit district said Thursday.
The grant is part of the Federal Transit Administration’s Low- or No-Emission Vehicle Deployment Program, which was authorized in last year’s FAST (Fixing America’s Surface Transportation) Act.
DeFazio is the senior Democrat on the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, and he helped negotiate the FAST legislation.
The new buses will replace old diesel buses that consume 39,114 gallons of diesel fuel and idle for an estimated 2,951 hours each year.
The new vehicles should allow LTD to significantly reduce its emissions of greenhouse gases and particulate matter.
Currently, 29 of LTD’s 109 buses have reached the end of their useful life and are in need of replacement, the district said. LTD’s long-range fleet plan depends on federal funding to replace aging vehicles, according to the district.
This fall, LTD will receive shipment of five electric buses funded under a previous federal grant. Those buses will make LTD the first transit agency in Oregon to operate fully electric buses.”