Massachusetts Transit Agencies Win $106 Million to Buy New Buses Statewide

Late last week, the Trump administration pledged $106 million in grants to five regional transit authorities (RTA) and the MBTA to help finance new buses and bus facilities across Massachusetts.

The funding was part of a national $2 billion round of funding for bus purchases under the Federal Transit Administration’s annual bus and bus facilities capital investment program.

This year’s round of grants under that program was considerably larger than usual, thanks to an additional $1.6 billion set-aside for low-emission and zero-emission buses in the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (sometimes referred to as the “Bipartisan Infrastructure Law”).

The biggest grant for Massachusetts will be a $78.6 million pledge to the MBTA “to buy new hybrid buses to replace older buses that have reached their useful life.”

That funding will support the current MBTA capital investment plan, which anticipates about $300 million in spending for new buses over the next 5 years.

The T’s planned bus purchases include up to 460 new battery electric buses and up to 160 “enhanced electric hybrid” buses that will replace 20 year-old diesel buses.

“Enhanced electric” hybrid buses have large onboard batteries that allow them to turn off the diesel engine and run on battery power for short distances.

According to the FTA’s grant announcements included the following descriptions for the other funds:

• The $4.5 million grant to the Pioneer Valley RTA will finance a renovation to its Northampton bus maintenance facility.
• The Berkshire RTA in western Massachusetts will receive two grants: $3 million to rehabilitate its operations and maintenance facility, plus an additional $5.4 million for new hybrid buses.
• The Lowell RTA will use its $7.2 million grant to purchase new hybrid replacements for older buses.
• Merrimack Valley Regional Transit Authority (MeVa) will receive $7.2 million for 6 new enhanced electric hybrid buses. Noah Berger, the agency’s administrator, told StreetsblogMASS on Monday that “the new vehicles will be the first 40-foot transit buses in our history and the largest capacity vehicles in our fleet, which will be ideal for meeting the demand of our burgeoning ridership.” Berger added that he expects to deploy the new buses on the agency’s highest-ridership intercity routes: the 24 between Lowell and Lawrence, the 1 between Lawrence and Haverhill, and the 10 between Lawrence and Methuen.

In the last round of low-emission bus grants, made during the Biden administration, dozens of grants went to finance new battery-electric buses and charging facilities.

In this year’s round of funding, there is no mention of purely electric buses in the FTA’s grant announcements.