San Francisco to have all-electric bus fleet by 2035

An all-electric bus fleet is coming to San Francisco by 2035. The commitment stems from an agreement between mayor Mark Farrell and the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA), which operates Muni – the city’s public transit system. Muni manages a fleet of zero-emission electric trolley buses and a fleet of low- emission electric hybrid vehicles. The SFMTA is rolling out new electric buses with higher capacity battery systems that supply power for its vehicles along several hybrid routes.
May 21, 2018 Read time: 2 mins

An all-electric bus fleet is coming to San Francisco by 2035. The commitment stems from an agreement between mayor Mark Farrell and the 4802 San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA), which operates Muni – the city’s public transit system.

Muni manages a fleet of zero-emission electric trolley buses and a fleet of low- emission electric hybrid vehicles.

The SFMTA is rolling out new electric buses with higher capacity battery systems that supply power for its vehicles along several hybrid routes.

Additionally, the agency plans to advance its technology when manufacturers can prove electric buses can withstand heavy ridership and steep hills. It would also consider new facilities that can charge a large fleet and develop an infrastructure to power vehicles in service or on the street.

John Haley, SFMTA’s transit director says: “While the battery technology is emerging rapidly, it isn’t quite ready for primetime. Manufacturers aren’t yet producing the number of all-electric buses San Francisco and other urban areas would need, nor could we guarantee that the vehicles would work for the required 15 years with heavy ridership and challenging topography.”

The SFMTA intends to buy a limited number of zero-emission battery electric buses in 2019 and evaluate how they perform on crowded and hilly routes.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • New York pioneers online mobile real-time bus tracking
    May 22, 2012
    An unusual technology collaboration. David Crawford investigates Early in January 2012, the New York City Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) rolled out the first borough-wide implementation of its pioneering Bus Time online mobile real-time tracking service. The system allow commuters to track each bus on every route in real-time on the internet, via smartphones and by text messaging to a mobile phone. The MTA chose Staten Island for its first live launch due to it being the only one of the five Ne
    Read More
  • Volvo to provide EV service at Birmingham airport
    March 26, 2019
    Volvo Bus is to deliver six single-deck electric buses to serve as an environmentally-friendly transport service at Birmingham airport in the UK from October. Nick Barton, CEO at Birmingham Airport, says: “Since 2012 the Airport has reduced its CO2 by 20% per passenger. Implementing the six electric buses will work towards lowering our CO2 per passenger even further.” Volvo says its 7900e vehicles come with an electric motor and four high capacity 200 kWh Lithium-ion batteries, which means no tailpipe em
    Read More
  • Road user charging potential solution to transportation problems
    December 14, 2012
    A number of new and highly significant open road tolling schemes have just been launched or are soon to ‘go live’. Systems of road user charging are flexing their muscles as the means to solve politically sensitive transportation problems, reports Jon Masters. Gothenburg, January 2013, will be the time and place for the launch of the next city congestion charging scheme in Europe. In a separate development, Los Angeles County’s tolled Metro ExpressLanes began operating in November 2012 – the latest in a ser
    Read More
  • Activu and Mitsubishi give New Jersey controllers the big picture
    May 27, 2014
    Mitsubishi and Activu team up to help New Jersey emergency centre with real-time situational awareness. Sandy was the largest Atlantic hurricane in recorded history, with winds spanning an area of 1,100 miles and damages estimated at $68 billion. It killed at least 286 people in seven countries, from Jamaica to the Jersey Shore. But tropical storms are not the only challenge for emergency operations up and down the East Coast.
    Read More

Highlighted Content