Politics & Government
54 Zero-Emissions Buses To Be Purchased By Transit District
The agency was awarded a $20.4 million federal grant to help pay for the buses.
SANTA CRUZ, CA — The Santa Cruz Metropolitan Transit District has been awarded over $20 million dollars in federal grant funding, the agency announced Monday.
The money will go towards replacing its fleet of buses with zero-emission vehicles, the county agency said. The transit district, also known as METRO, will make a local match of $3.6 million.
The $20.4 million comes from the Low-and-No Emission Grant Award, a Federal Transit Administration grant which provides funding for state and local transit authorities to invest in more energy efficient vehicles.
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METRO said that it plans to purchase 54 zero-emissions buses, the largest purchase of its kind, according to a press release.
Roughly 10 percent of the agency's 94 buses are currently zero-emissions vehicles, and this purchase will boost that figure by over 60 percent. Several high-capacity electric buses will be deployed on routes serving UC Santa Cruz to ease overcrowding, the agency said.
Find out what's happening in Santa Cruzfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
Funding will also be used to create a new workforce development program that will train Transit District employees to repair and maintain the new fleet of electric vehicles.
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