Bay Area gets more than $100 million in funding for clean bus projects

The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Transit Administration (FTA) announced 130 awards totaling nearly $1.7 billion from President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law for clean bus projects in 46 states and territories, including five in the Bay Area totaling more than $109 million.

Bay Area bus projects include:

• Marin County Transit District: $31,535,000. The Marin County Transit District will receive funding to build an electric bus facility, allowing it to continue investing in infrastructure needed to convert to a zero-emission fleet, and initiate a workforce training program. This project will decrease greenhouse gas emissions and provide more efficient transit operations that serve equity priority communities in Marin County.
• San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency: $30,128,378. The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency will receive funding to buy and install charging equipment at two bus yards to help transition its fleet to battery-electric buses. The project will improve service reliability, state of good repair, and air quality for residents living in and around San Francisco.
• Alameda-Contra Costa Transit District: $25,513,684. AC Transit will receive funding to buy fuel cell-electric buses and retrofit its training and education center to transition to a combined bus maintenance facility and a classroom/laboratory. The project will help train staff on zero-emission bus technologies and improve service and reliability while improving air quality.
• Solano County Transit: $12,458,500. SolTrans will receive funding to buy battery-electric buses and charging equipment and develop a workforce development training program as it plans to convert its entire fixed-route fleet to zero emissions by 2026. The project will improve air quality as well as service reliability and improve transit service for residents in the Solano County cities of Vallejo and Benicia.
• City of Santa Rosa: $9,899,120. The City of Santa Rosa's CityBus will receive funding to buy battery-electric buses and charging equipment to replace older diesel buses. The project will improve air quality, safety, reliability and state of good repair in the North Bay.

The overall funding announced this week invests in more than 1,700 American-built buses that will be manufactured with American parts and labor. Nearly half of these buses will be zero-emission models, bringing the total number of zero-emission transit buses funded by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law over two years to more than 1,800 – and more than doubling the number of zero-emission transit buses on America’s roadways. Many of the grant recipients have pledged to buy standardized buses and vans and avoid customization, which will result in faster delivery and lower costs.