The lone diesel bus that passed the clean blue electric bus on Tuesday morning at Newark Airport is a rolling, stinking dinosaur.
The Port Authority has completed the deployment of its 36-bus electric fleet at its three metro area airports as part of what Executive Director Rick Cotton said on Tuesday is a broader environmental agenda for the agency.
That broader agenda has the Port Authority replacing half its fleet of light duty vehicles with electric powered cars and light vans in 4.5 years, Cotton said, where ever the technology permits.
The authority began acquiring 36 Proterra battery-electric buses in October 2018, with the first bus put in service at Newark Airport on June 14, 2019. The acquisition and deployment of the buses was completed ahead of schedule and each airport received 12 electric buses.
The upfront cost is $960,000 per bus, but that price is offset by saving in fuel and maintenance over the lifetime of the bus. Most buses typically have a 10-year service life.
"Embracing all electric buses saves 1,500 tons of emissions, said Kevin O’Toole, Port Authority board of commissioners chairman. “We’ll have electric buses running as much as humanly possible.”
Kevin O'Toole, Port Authority board chairman explains the advantages of 36 electric buses deployed at the agencies three metro area airports with Rick Cotton, executive director at Newark Airport on Tuesday morning.
Port Authority officials held a celebratory event at Newark Airport on Tuesday, showing off three buses, six charging stations and taking a ride. They talked about what they’ve learned during the first year of running six electric buses at each of the three airports, while the rest were manufactured and delivered..
The authority’s Proterra electric buses have a range of 150 to 230 miles between charging, based on the weather, said Steven Resch, automotive engineer for the agency’s central automotive division.
Last year, New Jersey was spared a really cold winter, which can reduce battery capacity in any vehicle. On the coldest winter day, bus battery capacity dropped to 120 miles between charging, Resch said. It takes three hours to fully charge a bus.
Airports are a pretty friendly place for electric buses, Cotton said.
“The terrain is flat, the routes are short and they’ve performed extremely well,” he said.
The authority’s airport electric bus fleet is the largest on the East Coast, said Abigail Goldring, a Port Authority spokeswoman.
The battery-powered buses will completely replace diesel buses at the authority’s two New York airports, Resch said. Those buses will be scrapped. Diesels will live on a little longer at Newark, as a back-up fleet when more buses are needed to augment the 12 electrics, when passenger volume is high, he said.
Drivers behind this Newark Airport shuttle bus will know it is all electric for two reasons, the lack of a cloud of diesel smoke and a paint job identifying it as one of 36 new electric buses purchased by the Port Authority.
Other transit agencies are interested in what the Port Authority is learning. NJ Transit is embarking on an eight-bus pilot program to test electric buses in local bus service in Camden, which will guide the agency about deploying them statewide.
“We made available all the data on the performance of our electric buses,” Cotton said. “There have been discussions within this and other regions. We are happy to share our experiences.”
In 2018, the authority made news after officials pledged to follow the Paris Climate Agreement and reduce emissions 35% by 2025 and 80% by 2050.
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Larry Higgs may be reached at lhiggs@njadvancemedia.com.
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