Does NJ Transit have electric buses? Yes, and this $100M grant will advance it

Colleen Wilson, NorthJersey.com
Updated ·2 min read

NJ Transit was awarded a $99.5 million federal grant to build a bus-charging station with solar canopies at its Meadowlands Bus Garage.

This was the largest grant of the 117 awarded by the Federal Transit Administration this year through one of its competitive grant programs offered through the 2021 Infrastructure and Investment Jobs Act. NJ Transit will pay for the 20% local match required for the grant using toll credits.

This adds to $37.7 million NJ Transit received in federal dollars last year to help modernize the Meadowlands bus garage — a project estimated to cost a total of $212 million.

"Maybe no state relies on its buses and public transit more than ours, the most densely populated state,” said Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr. in a statement. "This project will be a critical investment in New Jersey’s transportation future and in our nation’s growing fight against climate change."

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The grant will cover the costs related to Phase 1, which includes the installation of charging equipment for about 67 buses and prepping the site for as many as 130 electric buses to be housed at the Meadowlands Bus Garage, which opened in 1993 in Secaucus.

This grant provides a significant boost to NJ Transit's efforts to expand its electric bus program, which is so far limited to eight buses that launched as part of a pilot program in Camden in 2022. Gov. Phil Murphy has set clean energy goals that require NJ Transit to purchase 100% zero-emission buses by 2032, though the agency approved a contract earlier this year with New Flyer to purchase 750 diesel buses and options to buy another 1,300 in the future.

Billions of dollars will still be required to transition NJ Transit's fleet of more than 2,300 buses to zero-emission and update and expand its 16 aging bus garages with the equipment to charge them. To begin that work, the agency has largely leaned on state and federal grants. Here is a list of some of the other grants awarded:

  • $47 million to modernize Hilton bus garage in Maplewood for zero-emission electric buses

  • $44.6 million to rebuild a bus garage in Union City and make it compatible with electric buses

  • $68.1 million for the design effort to modernize the Hilton Bus Garage for electric buses

  • $5.15 million to purchase four electric buses to run out of Hilton garage

  • $14.6 million to modernize Wayne bus garage

The low-and-no-emission federal grant program is extremely competitive, with agencies across the country sending in applications each year to try to capture some of the available aid. This year, the FTA received 477 eligible project proposals worth $9 billion, but could only grant 117 of them, worth $1.5 billion.

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Does NJ Transit have electric buses? Yes, and a $100M grant will help