Fairmont-Marion County Transit Authority welcomes state's first public transit EV

Nov. 24—FAIRMONT — Fairmont is home to West Virginia's first electric vehicle in a public transportation fleet.

Tuesday afternoon, state, county and local representatives gathered in the Fairmont-Marion County Transit Authority service garage on Quincy Street to celebrate the newest addition to the authority's fleet of vehicles.

Sitting in the garage was a 2022 Ford E-Transit Van, fully powered by electric batteries. The van is the first in the state to be added to a fleet of public transportation vehicles.

The purchase of the vehicle was made possible through a project headed by Tennessee Technological University titled "Rural Reimagined, building an EV ecosystem for Appalachia." FMCTA is also the first transit authority in the project's five-state coverage area to receive their electric vehicle.

The five states in the program are Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia, Ohio and West Virginia. Marion County put up $100,000 toward the purchase of the EV and the infrastructure to maintain and charge it.

FMCTA General Manager George Levitsky said he's been pursuing the addition of a gas-alternative to his fleet for several years.

"We originally applied to a program through WVU and Fairmont State but didn't get past the first level. Then we saw Tennessee Tech received a grant," Levitsky said. "It was a year and five months ago we got on the phone with WVU and Tennessee Tech, we threw a spiel at them and they agreed to it."

The purpose of the vehicle is not only to provide an alternative to fossil fuel modes of transportation, but also to test how well electric vehicles will perform in rural and mountainous areas like Appalachia.

WVU and Tennessee Tech will use FMCTA's EV data so the universities can research the viability of electric vehicles in the region. Basic info such as how long a charge holds in the winter and what routes are best suited for the EVs will go a long way toward pushing West Virginia's public transit into renewables.

For the time being, the new EV in Fairmont will be used in para-transit routes, which includes trips to the hospital and low-mileage destinations.

"We're looking toward low and no emissions and this is a way of doing that," Levitsky said. "We want to see how they do, we hear a lot of negatives, but we want to see if there are some positives."

In addition to helping transit authorities purchase EVs, the Rural Reimagined project will also install over 250 charging stations across its five-state coverage area. The program will also establish workforce training in the area with the goal of transitioning to an EV transportation environment.

Pingen Chen, the project's leader from Cookeville, Tenn.-based Tennessee Tech, spoke at the presentation Tuesday and said his goal is to push Appalachia into the future.

"This is going to be a long process, but today is the first step forward," Chen said. "It's time to adapt. If we don't adapt, the opportunity will pass by."

West Virginia has made slow progress forward with electric vehicles. Several school districts have added electric school busses to their fleets. Vancouver, Canada-based GreenPower Motor Co. announced plans earlier this year to establish a manufacturing plant in southern Charleston to be operational in 2024.

But the progress is slow, and officials at the state level are taking a 'wait and see approach' before jumping into any major commitments.

Bill Robinson is the executive director of the West Virginia Division of Transportation's Multimodal Transportation Infrastructure Division and Public Transit Division. Tuesday, he spoke about the future of public transit in the state.

"Electric Vehicles have their place, especially in urban areas like downtown Fairmont. But when you're really going to cover a lot of distance we're keeping an eye on hydrogen fuel cell vehicles and a gas alternative," Robinson said. "But programs like this are important, because they can tell us if this really works well or if it doesn't."

Reach David Kirk at 304-367-2522 or by email at dkirk@timeswv.com.