First Electric Buses At Falls Church City Public Schools Introduced

FALLS CHURCH, VA — The first electric school buses are being added to the transportation fleet at Falls Church City Public Schools, marking some of the first electric buses being rolled out in Virginia this year.

The two new electric buses are free of noise pollution and fossil fuel use. According to Dominion Energy, the air inside electric buses is up to five times cleaner than air inside diesel buses.

FCCPS had received $530,000 from the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality to help buy two new electric school buses. The funding is from Virginia's $93.6 million Volkswagen Environmental Mitigation Trust allocation, which resulted from a 2016 settlement that the manufacturer cheated on federal emissions tests. Dominion Energy, the electric utility for much of Northern Virginia, funded the installation of Proterra charging infrastructure.

A ribbon cutting ceremony was held Tuesday with FCCPS, Thomas Built Buses dealer Sonny Merryman and Dominion Energy.

"We are thrilled to introduce electric school buses to our fleet and lead the way in our region," said FCCPS Superintendent Peter Noonan. "This partnership with Dominion Energy and Sonny Merryman will benefit not only our students but also the environment and the community as a whole."

Each bus can transport up to 77 students and travel about 135 miles on a three-hour charge. According to FCCPS, electric buses can help the school division reduce its operation and maintenance costs by 60 percent. School buses typically travel over 166,000 miles annually through school pick-ups and drop-offs as well as transportation to field trips and athletic events.

"While everyone else has been waiting for this day, the transportation team has been preparing for this day," said FCCPS Transportation Director Regina Anderson said. "We've all trained on these electric buses, and as a transportation department, we are so proud to be able to shepherd this new transportation technology into the community."

In addition, the electric bus batteries will store and send electric energy into the local power grid during times of high demand when buses are not needed for transportation.

The FCCPS electric buses are among the first 1 percent being introduced in Virginia this year. In 2021, the state announced it will replace a total of 83 buses across the state's 18 school districts with electric or propane-fueled buses through the Volkswagen Environmental Mitigation Trust allocation to the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality.