Nearly a month ago, we first heard about DART's plan to explore adding electric buses to its fleet. Now, take a look at a mockup of what the proposed Proterra EcoRide electric buses would look like wrapped in the familiar
D-Link magenta.
DART is seeking a $13 million grant to buy nine of the electric buses and the infrastructure needed to support them. The money would come from the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) though the
Low or No Emission Vehicle Deployment Program.
The buses would be deployed as part of the D-Link downtown circulator. Partners in the project may include the City of Dallas, Downtown Dallas, Inc., the North Central Texas Council of Governments, the Texas Transportation Institute, the Texas Department of Transportation, the North Texas Tollway Authority, the General Land Office of the State of Texas, Cavallo Energy (DART's electric power provider) and Proterra (the manufacturer of the electric bus).
The introduction of electric buses would be the second zero-emission vehicle in DART's fleet. The first being the electric light rail vehicles.