Agency official: $79 million federal award to buy diesel-electric hybrid buses to replace oldest vehicles

An agency official said the transit agency received a federal award of $79 million to purchase diesel-electric hybrid buses that will be used to phase out some of the system’s oldest diesel buses.

"We did receive a federal award recently for $79 million for diesel electric hybrid buses," the agency official said. The official said the funding will allow the agency to remove the oldest, highest-emission buses from service and replace them with newer models.

The official cautioned that the hybrid technology still relies in part on fossil fuels but said it has improved. "Even though it's still a technology that's relying on fossil fuels partially, the technology itself has really really improved," the official said, arguing that newer vehicles produce fewer emissions than older ones.

The official also compared recent purchases of diesel locomotives with the agency’s oldest units, saying the newer equipment is "light years apart" in terms of emissions. The official said there is "such huge value in terms of renewing the fleet and continuing to replace and phase out older vehicles and continuing to invest in the reliability of the fleet."

There was no formal vote or motion recorded in the transcript; the remarks were presented as an informational update about federal funding and vehicle replacement plans. Details such as the schedule for procurement, the number of buses to be purchased, and the timeline for retiring specific vehicles were not specified in the transcript.

The agency official framed the award as part of a broader effort to reduce emissions and improve system reliability, while noting that hybrid vehicles still depend partially on fossil fuels.