Electric buses poised for rollout in 2019
CDTA set to unveil new initiatives
TROY, N.Y. >> The Capital District Transit Authority is set to roll out some new initiatives in 2019. Included among those initiatives are electric buses, a new rapid transit line, and a ramping up of its bike-sharing program.
“We’ve got a number of things that are on the drawing board or nearing implementation. We’ve spent a lot of time in the past year or so developing our bike share program. Basically, we’ve just completed season one and a half, so in 2019 our objective is to ingrain that in our community and expand its use and get more people interested in bicycling,” CDTA Executive Director Carm Basile said of growing the popular program.
Basile also talked about the demand for infrastructure improvements and chief among those is a rapid transit line being created between Albany and Troy.
“We also are developing a bus rapid transit line between Albany and Troy and 2019 is when you’re going to see a lot of the infrastructure work for that line completed, installed, constructed and we hope to be operational in 2020,” Basile said of the timetable for construction of the line.
“When it’s operating the corridor itself we’re expecting a 15 percent increase in ridership along the corridor,” Basile added on how the corridor should raise ridership.
Basile was also excited about the revolutionary addition of electric buses around June or July of next year. “Probably mid-year we’ll take delivery of four electri-
cally powered buses. It’s a four bus pilot that we’re piloting the technology and it has tremendous promise. That might end up being the showcase product of the year because there’s been a huge push at the federal level and state level to consider this technology,” Basile noted of the new technology.
According to Basile, CDTA would be the first property in upstate New York to house electric vehicles. “Initially the charging stations will be at our facility here in Albany. We plan to install two chargers with each has the capability of charging buses at the same time so you’d have four charging components. In the future, there are remote fast chargers that we could explore but that’s in the future,” Basile said of how the buses will be charged.
“We’re excited about it, to test the technology and evaluate it. The environmental side there’s no questioning or arguing what the results will be,” Basile noted of the positive impact on the environment.
“On the opposite side we need to better understand the range of the vehicles, the batteries can only go so far, we need to understand that range, what impacts the range, hills, valleys, the heating system, air conditioning system, how much they pull and at the end of the day is there a savings with electric vs. conventional diesel fuel,” Basile added of the testing process with the buses.
Basile also hopes CDTA’s initiatives will continue to expand the public’s options when it comes to mass transit.