Getting your Trinity Audio player ready…
KALAMAZOO, MI — Kalamazoo’s public transit system is soon hoping to know if it has the federal support to add more hybrid electric buses to its fleet.
In July, Metro Transit submitted a bid for funding that would allow it to acquire up to eight new diesel/electric hybrid buses. It is working through the Michigan Department of Transportation to land a competitive No-Low Grant, a reference to no-emissions or low-emissions. Metro has made funding requests during each of the past two years, but they have not yet been approved. The competitive grants, which are provided by the Federal Transit Administration, would help as the public transit system looks to replenish its 45-bus fleet. It looks to replace two to three buses each year.
“We want a sustainable fleet,” says Sean McBride, executive director of Kalamazoo Metro Transit, “not just an environmentally sustainable fleet but a financially sustainable fleet that we can maintain efficiently. And with emerging technologies like battery electric and hydrogen fusion, that adds to the complexity and the cost. So all those things have to be taken into account to determine what’s about to happen.”…