Metro Lands $3 Million Federal Grant for Electric Buses

The Metro Transit Authority has landed a federal grant to help purchase electric buses. Friday’s announcement attracted the country’s top overseer of mass transit.

The $3 million being awarded to Nashville is one of 27 grants announced nationwide for projects involving so-called “clean fuels.”

Federal Transit Administrator Peter Rogoff traveled to Nashville and says the city’s plan for all-electric bus service downtown is relatively significant.

“Leapfrogging over all the other clean fuel technologies to go immediately to a zero emissions bus is a national event in the view of the Federal Transit Administration.”

Nashville MTA plans to buy four battery-powered buses and install chargers at the riverfront train station. The electric system will replace the green-colored buses that are free to ride around the city’s core. The new buses are expected to be in place by early 2014.

MTA is working to get much more federal funding for a massive bus rapid transit line that would run from East Nashville to West End. The Federal Transit Administrator says BRT – which would have a dedicated lane – is a good fit for a city of Nashville’s size. MTA has not yet applied* for funding. But the FTA administrator says the project is still “moving in the right direction.”

*A previous version of this story said MTA missed a September deadline. MTA officials say they are intentionally waiting for a new federal grant program that begins next month.