The City of Tallahassee was recently awarded a grant of more than $11.3 million from the Federal Transit Administration for StarMetro. Funds will be used to purchase eight electric buses, expand essential charging infrastructure and support workforce development programs to maintain the City’s growing electric fleet.
“Tallahassee was among only 117 projects nationwide to receive this federal funding,” Mayor ProTem Curtis Richardson said. “This is yet another major accomplishment and demonstrates the City’s continued leadership in sustainability and public service.”
The addition of these six battery-electric buses and two paratransit electric buses will further advance StarMetro toward the City’s strategic goal of achieving a fully electric bus fleet by 2035. New charging equipment will facilitate overnight charging and enable route restructuring, allowing more parts of the community to be served by emission-free vehicles.
This funding was provided by FTA’s Grants for Buses and Bus Facilities and Low-and No-Emission (Low-No) Vehicle programs. The Grants for Buses and Bus Facilities program provides federal funding for transit agencies to buy and rehabilitate buses and vans and build and modernize bus facilities. The Low-No Vehicle program makes funding available to help transit agencies buy or lease U.S.-built low- or no-emission vehicles, make facility upgrades to accommodate the vehicles and buy supporting equipment, like battery electric charging.
This funding adds to the $36 million in federal grant funding StarMetro received in 2023 to support construction of the Southside Transit Center, purchase battery-electric buses, build new charging infrastructure and develop a workforce training program. Projects like the Southside Transit Center, which is on track to be completed in 2025, are transformative and helping to achieve many of the City’s strategic plan goals.
@ Dennis... Be careful, you're making sense there. Great idea.
I wonder how many Uber Accounts could be established for our citizens that need public transportation with $11 million dollars? Not only could they could ride in cars door to door when they wanted to ride but the new market of riders would created a lot jobs for self employed Uber drivers who would buy cars and fuel from local businesses...Oops, I am sorry. I went all out republican with that thought.
Be sure to thank the child slave labor in Africa for the batteries... 'cause, you know... like the Democrats say, "it's all about the children". From sexualizing them in public schools to exploiting them in slave labor camps for EV batteries... more and more people are waking up to what they really mean when they spew that rhetoric.
This is a part of the reason our National Debt is so high. EV’s are stupid investments. First of all, the taxpayer shouldn’t have to pay for your transportation needs.
Good article. It's not a real car unless its taking AMERICAN gasoline.
The reason for the wraps on the buses, is so you can not see they are empty, or nearly.
Buy the 8 EV Buses, store them for 30 days, sell them to the City of Austin Texas for a 10% discount and purchase 16 new Diesel powered buses for our beloved citizens to ride around in.
Great, 8 new battery powered buses for 1 or 2 people can ride in at any one time.
Steve is right on this one, city should just cut StarMetro. Do you know anyone who uses the bus system?
Last checked,City was going to purchase the Proterra brand . Go to YouTube -enter Proterra bus and scroll past the hype and you'll find the meat. . Besides catching on fire--hard to get parts and someone who can fix 'em.......no problems. Awhile back they had filed for bank'ruptcy.
This deal smells. BTW: When in traffic, notice locals avoiding the right lane when possible.