GRTC to receive $11M for cleaner bus fleet

More environmentally friendly public transit is coming to the streets of Metro Richmond, thanks to an $11-million federal grant announced by U.S. Senators Mark Warner and Tim Kaine.

GRTC will receive more than $10 million to replace 19 of its aging diesel buses with compressed natural gas buses, which release fewer harmful emissions, help improve air quality, and combat climate change. It also will receive more than $952,000 to demolish an existing building on its property and use it as a surface parking lot to store vehicles for existing and expanded transit service.

The funding was awarded through the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Fiscal Year 2022 Low or No Emission Vehicle Program which helps state and local governments purchase or lease zero-emission and low-emission transit buses as well as acquire and construct support facilities.

At the Aug. 16 GRTC Board of Directors Meeting, CEO Julie Timm expressed appreciation for the foresight of current GRTC Board Member Eldridge F. Coles for his initiative to start the conversion of the GRTC fleet from diesel to CNG fuel during his tenure as CEO with the support of the City of Richmond more than 10 years ago.

“With this award, GRTC will be nearing completion of the conversion to a greener, cleaner fleet,” Timm said. “However, even as this transition is nearing completion, GRTC is preparing to study newer and cleaner technologies for the bus fleet and bus facilities of 2050.”

Demolishing and remediating the aging building will both clean up the site and provide GRTC with land needed to manage its fleet expansion and growing ridership.

“GRTC’s maintenance facility and yard are at their capacity to hold our existing fleet and nearing capacity to meet the fleet’s CNG fueling needs,” GRTC Director of Planning and Scheduling Sam Sink said. “However, based on our significant post-COVID ridership recovery, we can already predict the need for increased service coverage and frequencies on our local bus routes and on the Pulse BRT line – which means we will soon need more buses of all sizes.”

GRTC was one of two Virginia transit agencies to receive federal funding under the announcement; Suffolk Transit was awarded $565,000.

The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Transit Administration awarded a total of $1.66 billion in grants to transit agencies, territories, and states across the country to invest in 150 clean bus fleets and facilities.