Municipal Services Committee to Discuss City’s Transition to Electric Buses

The City Council’s Municipal Services Committee will discuss preliminary recommendations in relation to the city’s transition to electric-powered buses by 2040.

The discussion will focus on the draft Transit Fleet Electrification Feasibility Study for The Arroyo Verdugo Region Transit Operators.

The committee meets at 4 p.m. Tuesday.

The draft study was developed by the city Transportation Department to meet the California Air Resources Board (CARB) requirement for all public transit operators in California to transition to 100 percent zero emission bus (ZEB) fleets by 2040.

The study highlights a roadmap for the city and its public transit services, Pasadena Transit and Pasadena Dial-A-Ride.

According to the department’s report, the transition is proposed to begin by 2027.

The study suggests that in order to meet the 2040 deadline, a city-owned transit maintenance facility has to be in place by 2026, prior to the start of the transitioning to battery electric bus (BEB) fleets.

The department said if the transition starts by 2027, the Pasadena Dial-A-Ride fleet would be converted to BEB use by 2033 and the Pasadena Transit fleet by 2037.

“The full funding amount needed to support the complete transition to a ZEB transit fleet by 2037, including the investment in building a transit facility, has yet to be identified but will continue to be actively pursued via grant funding and any other funding opportunities that become available to the city,” the report reads.

The department said with a facility in place, the BEB fleet transition is estimated to cost up to $59,978,313 by 2040.

The city has until July 1, 2023 to adopt the “ZEB Rollout Plan” for Pasadena.