Brady Pieper57 new electric buses will soon join Chicago-area public transit fleets following grant awards totaling more than $58 million.
The Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (IEPA) said the grants – $27 million to Pace Suburban Bus and $31.25 million to the Regional Transporation Authority for the Chicago Transit Authority – were the largest ever awarded through Driving a Cleaner Illinois, the IEPA’s grant program developed to distribute funding for various types of mobile source electrification projects.
Pace will purchase 27 battery-electric buses, and the Chicago Transit Authority will purchase 30 all-electric transit buses to replace the oldest diesel buses in their fleets.
Pace will provide a $9 million match, and the RTA will provide a $10.42 million match to the IEPA awards.
The CTA services Chicago and its closest suburbs, while Pace handles public transportation for Chicago’s outermost suburbs.
The Driving a Cleaner Illinois Program’s funding comes from a variety of sources, including the Climate and Equitable Jobs Act, the Volkswagen Environmental Mitigation Trust, and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Diesel Emission Reduction Act (DERA) Program.
The IEPA has been designated as the lead agency to administer funds allocated to Illinois from the Volkswagen Environmental Mitigation Trust. Illinois’ initial allocation of funds is approximately $108 million to be used to fund mobile source diesel emission reduction projects. The funds are to be used for projects that reduce emissions of nitrogen oxides in Illinois.
“We are thrilled to see this state investment in transit that will allow us to make even greater strides toward our vision of a zero-emission system,” said RTA Executive Director Leanne Redden. “This award not only allows the CTA to make significant progress on greening its bus fleet, but it also helps to enhance service and reliability for all bus riders.”
Grant awards from IEPA to RTA and Pace will be incorporated into the RTA 5-Year Regional Capital Program later this year and future service board bus purchasing plans will incorporate these grants to receive new electric buses soon, the RTA said.
Photo courtesy David Wilson from Oak Park, Illinois, USA, CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
