Critics contend that the plan moves too slowly, but transit officials said Metro needs time to find and allocate billions of dollars needed for the conversion.
Metro board member Lucinda Babers, the District’s deputy mayor for operations and infrastructure, addressed disappointed residents who wanted Metro to move on a more aggressive timetable, saying she supported the plan because the agency has the option of speeding up the transformation as it builds infrastructure.
“I know many of them are disappointed because it doesn’t go far enough,” she said. “There is nothing in this resolution that prevents us from moving quicker.”
Metro has considered electrifying its 1,500-bus fleet in recent years, pledging on Earth Day 2019 to test electric buses as part of a wide-ranging energy plan. While the agency is scheduled to acquire 12 electric buses in mid-2022 as part of a pilot, environmental advocates and some local leaders say the agency is moving too slowly. They began pushing Metro last year to commit to dates and benchmarks for the conversion to electric buses.
The Sierra Club is among the groups pressuring Metro, the nation’s third-largest transit system.
Metro board members have worried about whether electric buses can match the performance of gas and hybrid buses, while also expressing concern about the expense of charging stations and the buses themselves, which can cost up to double what buses cost now.
Metro’s buses currently run on compressed natural gas and diesel, while hybrids run on a combination of diesel and electricity. The transit agency buys 100 new buses annually to replace aging vehicles, which reach the end of their useful life after 15 years, according to Metro. The transit agency has a single bus powered solely by electricity.
The transition comes amid a rapidly changing political and technological landscape. With President Biden prioritizing public bus systems as part of his proposed infrastructure package, board members also see an opportunity for grants and federal aid.
A recent Pew Research Center poll showed two-thirds of people believe electric vehicles are better for the environment. But while research shows such vehicles are growing in popularity, Americans are split on the idea of phasing out gas-powered cars and trucks by 2035, according to the poll, with their cost viewed as the main sticking point.
Metro board members, who have spent recent weeks looking to boost fare revenue and persuade more riders to return to transit, shared the same concerns Thursday. Gas-powered buses from New Flyer of America, a builder of Metrobuses, start at $450,000, while electric versions start at $700,000. Building charging stations, retrofitting garages to accommodate electric buses and the energy costs to fuel the vehicles are other higher costs that officials said they needed to consider.
According to the Sierra Club, the lifetime cost of an electric bus is $1.12 million, at least $150,000 less than diesel, compressed natural gas and hybrid buses. Those costs include purchase price, fuel, maintenance and operating expenses, the group said.
Other concerns, environmental advocates say, are outweighed by long-term health benefits for bus operators, passengers and urban neighborhoods by reducing pollution.
The Metro Electric Bus Coalition, a group of 26 organizations that includes the Audubon Naturalist Society, Sierra Club and Greenpeace USA, said Metro lags behind other major transit agencies in converting its fleet. With each day it continues to operate diesel buses, the group said, people in the region suffer.
“The fact that we are facing a climate crisis and our region has a major smog problem should be enough for Metro to move quickly to electrify its bus fleet,” Elliott Negin, a clean bus advocate at coalition member Union of Concerned Scientists, said in a statement. “But instead of rising to the occasion like other transit agencies across the country, Metro is lagging behind, condemning local residents to decades of bus carbon and toxic pollution.”
The D.C. Circulator and the DASH bus system in Alexandria have committed to converting their fleets at least a decade sooner than Metro, advocates say. The bus coalition also said several large transit agencies across the country have more aggressive timelines, including the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency and the main transit systems of Chicago, Seattle and New York.
The group said Metro’s proposal is not aggressive enough. While its goal to convert the entire fleet by 2045 meets the Clean Energy D.C. Act’s target for zero-emission city-owned vehicles — as well as public buses, taxis, limousines and private fleets with more than 50 vehicles — it would fail to meet the city law’s benchmark of having at least half its fleet converted by 2030.
In a letter to the Metro board dated Wednesday, D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson said the transit agency’s transition plan is too slow. Under Metro’s proposed timetable, just 18 percent of its fleet would be electric in nine years, according to Metro Electric Bus Coalition estimates. Metro does plan to start out slow, according to its proposal, beginning its purchases of electric in the fiscal year that begins in summer 2023. The plan’s pace is meant to give Metro time to add needed charging stations and other infrastructure but also quicken as technology improves the performance of electric buses, which remains a concern to the agency.
“If accepted in its current form, [Metro] will unnecessarily delay electrification of its bus fleet,” Mendelson wrote. “Climate Change is upon us and this conversion is eminently doable.”
Metro Board member Michael Goldman, who represents Maryland, abstained from the vote, saying the transit agency should switch completely to electric-bus purchases starting next year.
“If we don’t set ambitious goals, we will always be the laggard and not the leader in the region,” he said. “I think Metro should do better.”
Other board members approved of the pace, saying it will take time to find money and build charging stations, garages and other infrastructure for such a major conversion.
Board member and Loudoun County Supervisor Matt Letourneau said a transit agency the size of Metro “can’t turn on a dime.”
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