Florida Transit Agency Buys 60 Electric Buses
A Florida transit agency, the Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority (PSTA) of Pinellas County, recently ordered 60 full-electric buses. Pinellas County is the large county just west of Tampa that includes St. Petersburg, Clearwater, and Palm Harbor. The 60 electric buses will be delivered over the next 5 years (making the order a bit less exiting than before), but 24 of them will be delivered before the end of this year.
The Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority will get the electric buses from 4 different bus manufacturers. They are yet to be named, but the above-pictured electric bus comes from Gillig, implying it’s one of the 4 companies. Other likely contenders include BYD, Proterra, and New Flyer.
The electric buses will charge both at night and via some on-route charging stations (at least some of which are already installed). Fuel cost savings are expected to total $20,000 a year for the buses as they replace diesel buses.
On a full charge, the buses are expected to provide about 200 miles of driving range, or 14 hours a day of operation.
At the moment, the PSTA actually has 6 electric buses.
Interestingly, PSTA President Brad Miller indicated that the Biden infrastructure bill was “the largest investment public transit has realised in US history” and was a big part of what inspired the 60-bus order. Let’s hope several other large transit agencies in Florida and elsewhere follow suit soon.
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