CityBus awarded $7.6 million grant to purchase state-of-the-art buses

LAFAYETTE, Ind. — At October’s Lafayette City Council meeting, representatives from CityBus informed the council that it had received a $7.6 million grant to revamp its fleet with low- or no-emission buses.

Joanne Zhang, the company's chief financial officer, explained that CityBus was chosen to participate in the Federal Transit Administration's Low or No Emission grant program, which provides funding to state and local governmental authorities to help purchase zero-emission and low-emission transit buses and support facilities.

With the money that it received from this grant, CityBus will be purchasing four state-of-the-art hydrogen fuel buses and three compressed natural gas buses, developing and constructing new hydrogen refueling stations and maintenance facility modifications, and workforce training programs for CityBus employees.

CityBus will also be the first transit system in Indiana to own and operate the new hydrogen fuel buses. However, CityBus will not receive the buses until 2025.

“CityBus has always been on the front of energy efficiency. We were right on the cutting edge when we got hybrid buses and the bulk of our fleet now, about 66 percent of our fleet is powered by compressed natural gas and 31 is hybrid diesel-electric” said Bryan Walck, public relations coordinator for CityBus.

“We’ve always been on the cutting edge of energy efficient or environmentally smart transportation. So, applying for the No-Low grant was a no-brainer to us.”

Many at CityBus were shocked when they discovered that they had been chosen for this grant since it was a highly competitive grant with applicants from across the country.

“CityBus is excited to collaborate with diverse partners, community stakeholders, and the FTA to realize the full potential of this grant award. CityBus remains committed to serving as a model for sustainable transit solutions and looks forward to implementing this transformative project for the benefit of the Greater Lafayette community,” CityBus stated in a press release about the grant.

Zhang also informed the city council on several other matters regarding CityBus.

“This year for CityBus is a successful year. We are able to recruit and retain our operators. We restored the service levels to pre-pandemic levels. Our ridership is back to 2019 levels,” Zhang said.

This return of ridership has invigorated the company to start planning for the future of CityBus. Zhang alluded to the notion that CityBus has applied for a grant that would help pay for a new transit system study.

“It’s a planning grant, so we are asking for money to plan for the future, but the grant application revolved around the idea of transforming our current transit system,” Walck.

“(Our current system) is a pulse system in which almost all of the routes go out from the central downtown CityBus center and then back.

“We want a more community-based transit system that would envision hubs, including one in downtown I don’t think it would ever go away, but it would be complimented through a system of community hubs.”

CityBus is hoping to eventually create a system that would make traversing around the Greater Lafayette an easier and smoother experience. Walck alluded to the idea of creating a hub near Ivy Tech and YMCA, one on the south side of town due to its rapid growth in population, and one in West Lafayette by Walmart.

“The grant would fund the necessary comprehensive operation analyst that would allow us to kind of do those studies,” he said.

Walck highlighted the need for CityBus to change its current transit system.

“By and large, we’re running a system now if you compare it to the system that was founded 50 years ago. It hasn’t changed that much,” he said.

CityBus is not expected to hear back about the grant for several months, but even if they are not awarded the grant, this community-based hub is still an idea they are willing to explore at a later date.

“We do a lot of amazing things here at CityBus and even as a small agency we punch above our weight class.”

Noe Padilla is a reporter for the Journal & Courier. Email him at Npadilla@jconline.com and follow him on Twitter at 1NoePadilla.

This article originally appeared on Lafayette Journal & Courier: CityBus awarded $7.6 million grant to purchase state-of-the-art buses