It’s been said many times already but cities really need to get their public transit in order so they can fix traffic congestation and improve the lives of their residents but I still have some questions about some ideas I had.
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How much would it cost for a city to electrify their entire bus fleet? Yes, people taking the bus is still a good thing but a lot buses still run on some fossil fuel.
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How much would it cost a city with no rail/metro infrastructure to create it from scratch?
replacing an existing fleet of diesel transit buses with all EV literally pays for itself in lower maintenance and operating costs, even though the vehicles themselves cost as much as 50% more.
a couple of cost examples: the 15 mile extension (to the southwest burbs) of the LRT line that connects the downtowns of minneapolis and saint paul will end up with a final cost of around $200 million per mile. new underground subway lines/extensions in nyc have been built at costs over $1-2 billion per mile.
I think battery buses require extra road maintenance because they’re so heavy. They’d be required to use truck routes or their roads would have to be updated to handle those weights.
Also EV charging infrastructure is not nothing.
In general, trolleybuses are probably the best electrification method, but people get mad about catenary.
Its also easier to give priority to a trolley because it is on rails and far more predictable.