MTA not confident electric buses are ready for NYC streets
An MTA electric bus is pictured at a charging station on the West Side Highway at 42 St. in Manhattan on Tuesday, May 25, 2021. (Marc A. Hermann / MTA) New Flyer XE40
The MTA is ordering new buses as part of an effort to fully electrify its fleet by 2040 — but agency officials say they’re wary of going all-in on electric bus technology as they’re not convinced it’s fully ready for New York City streets.
“The market doesn’t quite yet have what we believe is a reliable electric 60-foot bus,” NYC Transit president Rich Davey told the MTA board last week. “There are a couple out there, but we’re not feeling quite confident enough yet to invest in those.”
Sixty-foot articulated buses are a mainstay of the MTA’s express Select Bus Service routes, including those that run on major crosstown Manhattan streets.
Right now, the MTA’s 15 electric buses are articulated 60-footers operated out of the Michael J. Quill bus depot in west Midtown.
Another 18 electric articulated buses are included in a $286 million purchase of 205 battery-powered buses approved by the MTA board last week. The articulated buses in the order will cost the MTA $2.1 million apiece.
But the bulk of the new electric bus order consists of 187 40-foot electric buses for local service, to be bought for $1.3 million apiece. All the buses will be built by manufacturer New Flyer. The New Flyer contract also includes spare parts, tools and training to maintain the battery-powered fleet.
The contract gives the MTA the option to purchase up to 1,215 additional electric buses when more funding becomes available.
“This is the first major order of all-electric buses,” MTA’s head of construction and development, Jamie Torres-Springer, told the agency’s board on Wednesday. The purchase cost is offset by $116 million in federal grants supporting low-emission transit vehicles.
New Flyer is expected to deliver an earlier, separate order of 60 40-foot electric buses in the fall of 2024. The purchase of those buses was first approved by the MTA board in 2021. Buses from that order are slated to enter service at the Charleston depot in Staten Island, the Kingsbridge depot in the upper Manhattan, and the Grand Avenue depot in Queens and the East New York depot in Brooklyn.
The first buses from the contract approved last week are due in January 2025, with deliveries continuing through July 2027.
The orders for hundreds of new electric buses will not make up a big portion of the MTA’s bus fleet, which is the largest of any U.S. transit system. The electric buses in the New Flyer contract approved last week are equivalent to around 4% of the MTA’s fleet of roughly 5,800 buses.
The bus system’s aging diesel articulateds need replacement, MTA officials said Wednesday as they voted to approve the purchase of 245 diesel-powered 60-footers from New Flyer for $292 million — roughly $1.2 million per bus.
The new diesel buses are slated to replace articulated buses currently past their 12-year service life.
Despite still relying on internal combustion, the new diesel bus engines work under stricter emissions standards, MTA bus boss Frank Annicaro said.
“These diesel buses are much more efficient than the outgoing buses,” he told the board.
Both sets of buses, diesel and electric, will be built in New Flyer facilities in Jamestown, N.Y., and St. Cloud, Minn., according to MTA documents.
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