BOZEMAN- The Montana Department of Transportation has submitted a proposal to get a chunk of an $85 million dollar Federal Transit Administration grant to purchase four electric buses for Big Sky and Bozeman.
Western Transportation Manager David Kack said the grant proposal is due on Monday, June 18 but the DOT submitted the application early on June 14th.
Kack said battery-powered buses typically cost around $775,000 each meaning the grant would be able to fund around 110 buses nationwide. Bozeman and Big Sky are asking for two each.
"Again you, you cross your fingers and you hope that the people evaluating these look and see hey maybe it is interesting to put some in southwest Montana, so we will just have to wait and see,” said Kack.
If the proposal is accepted, the DOT would put out a bid to manufacturers like Proterra or New Flyer of America to purchase four depot charging electric buses. Two for Streamline and two for Skyline. Unlike the fast charging electric buses, the University of Montana in Missoula has, these buses would run their routes and then once the batter got low they would return to the bus depot to charge for a couple of hours. The buses in Missoula, are in route charging buses, meaning at a particular they stop at a charging system where the bus charges for five minutes to obtain an 80% charge.
Kack said it would be nice to be able to have in route charging but it is not feasible for the transportation department to send an extra half a million dollars to install the charging station.
"In our mind what we would do is have the buses go out and run their routes and then come back to the bus depot and then would charge overnight, or during the middle of the day,” said Kack.
The DOT will find out whether or not the will receive a chunk of the federal grant money by the end of August. If it is approved, Kack said the buses would be ordered as soon as possible in hopes of having them up and rolling within the next two years.
