MISSOULA — Mountain Line recently hit a milestone in their electrification journey with 50% of their fleet now being fully electric.
The transit agency hit this milestone four years after they set off to make their fleet fully electric by 2035. A large part of their progress is due to grants that helped them jump-start the electrification process.
“Our team has been really successful at chasing after federal grants. And so all of these buses are primarily paid for with federal money,” said Jordan Hess, CEO and general manager for Mountain Line.
Mountain Line’s chase for federal funding isn’t stopping.
“We have several that are actually on order from another round of grant funding. So we will receive 10 more battery-electric buses sometime in 2025. And at that point, actually, 26 out of 29 of our vehicles will be battery electric,” continued Hess.
Electric buses offer many benefits over traditional diesel buses as aside from cleaner air, they have better equivalent miles per gallon over diesel buses, even in the cold according to Mountain Line.
But that’s not all.
“But the big thing is fueling. It takes labor to fuel a bus to stand there, pump the fuel in. Once we pull a bus into the barn, we plug it in, we charge it, we forget it,” said Jennifer Sweten, director of operations for Mountain Line.
“The cost-benefit of 75¢ to $1 a mile in fuel costs for a diesel bus, as opposed to 30¢ to 45¢,” explained Sweten.
“The preventive maintenance on these buses is much less. We don't have to do those oil changes. We don't have to do all those fluid checks constantly,” continued Sweten.
The drivers like them too — mainly because of the lack of diesel that has to be burned.
“On the diesels, we have what we call, regen. Where they’re cleaning everything out. We obviously don’t have that, we’re running clean. That’s what I like,” said Mountain Line driver Rodney Braae.
As Mountain Line continues to electrify their fleet, there are a couple of things you can look forward to in the future — fewer diesel fumes in the air and more spaceship noises around town.
If you’re curious to know if you’re riding on a new bus, check the bus number as the new ones start with 23.
