This post was originally featured on TriMet News. TriMet’s new battery-electric buses are officially on the road!
Twenty-four next-generation “e-buses” are entering service with TriMet this year. The first of those buses began welcoming riders aboard Line 9-Powell in July, offering a smooth, quiet and comfortable ride between Downtown Portland and the Gresham Central Transit Center. We’ll roll out more new e-buses on more lines in the coming weeks.
Our e-buses are zero-emissions vehicles, powered by 100% renewable electricity. That means they generate no air pollution, reducing overall vehicle emissions and improving air quality in our region.
They’re also American-made! We purchased these buses from GILLIG, a bus manufacturer headquartered in Livermore, California. GILLIG built the buses at its manufacturing facility in the San Francisco Bay Area and drove them about 650 miles up Interstate 5 to Portland earlier this year.
The bus electric
GILLIG outfits its state-of-the-art e-buses with six lithium-ion battery packs. TriMet recharges these batteries every time a bus returns to our Powell Operations Facility, so it’s ready to roll out again the next day.
With support from the federal government and Portland General Electric, we’ve been installing charging stations for our e-buses. Most recently, we added 24 charging stations at our Powell Facility in outer Southeast Portland, so each of the new e-buses has a place to plug in.
In place of an internal combustion engine, every e-bus has a powerful electric motor. This motor runs on battery power, with a range of well over 150 miles on a single charge in our latest generation of e-buses. We’ll keep track of how they perform over the next few months, tackling hilly terrain, varying temperatures, traffic conditions and more, as we evaluate how they can best serve our riders.
These new e-buses have 33% more battery capacity than the previous generation of GILLIG e-buses we first introduced in 2021. They will also be able to charge on the go. Like our short-range New Flyer battery-electric buses, which we first introduced in 2019, they’re equipped with overhead charging rails for fast charging. This will give us additional flexibility in how and where we run these buses.
As we roll out these e-buses, we’re replacing older diesel buses that have reached the end of the road with TriMet after many years of service. The 24 new e-buses are joining 10 e-buses that were already in service with TriMet, more than tripling the number of zero-emissions buses in our fleet.
Catching the wave of the future
TriMet has set a goal of a full transition to zero-emissions buses by 2040.
The 24 e-buses from GILLIG are paid for with state and federal funding. We appreciate the support we’ve received from our partners!
Reaching zero emissions requires more than a one-size-fits-all approach. The Federal Transit Administration awarded TriMet a $39 million grant this summer to help us continue moving toward a fully zero-emissions fleet. With this grant, we plan to purchase 14 hydrogen fuel-cell electric buses — a first for TriMet — before the end of this decade.
The 60-foot articulated fuel-cell electric buses will run along 82nd Avenue, one of the busiest traffic corridors in our region. Together with our partners at Metro, our goal is to open a high-capacity rapid bus transit line, similar to FX2-Division, along 82nd Avenue sometime in 2029.
The grant will also pay for the infrastructure and training we need to support these buses, including more upgrades for the Powell Operations Facility.
We also received a $25 million grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation this summer for the development of our Columbia Operations Facility. This site supports our transition to zero-emissions buses, including fuel-cell electric buses. Learn more about GILLIG Battery Electric Buses here: https://www.www.gillig.com/battery-electric