While University of Montana students will start getting around campus through electric power this fall, Missoula’s main transit agency also has electric buses on its shopping list.
“We’re aggressively going after federal grant opportunities as they arise and looking at how we can move in that direction,” Mountain Line General Manager Corey Aldridge said,
The Associated Students of the University of Montana unveiled its first electric bus on the Oval today, with community, college and state officials praising ASUM’s four year effort to add the zero emission’s bus to the UDASH line.
The bus will be the first of two going into service this fall, promising not only the environmental benefit, but cost savings through no fuel and longer equipment life.
Those same features mean Mountain Line will be watching closely, working toward its own goal of zero emissions…
“We’re here for the community. We want to benefit the community. We don’t want to be polluting it more. Right now, we’re reducing traffic congestion through our Zero Fare. We’re helping to improve air quality. And we want to do the same with emissions on our vehicles, so we can be completely emissions free,” Aldridge said.
Aldridge says Mountain Line already has three routes which could potentially use the same “fast charge” station that makes the UDASH bus feasible.