August 19, 2022. The Jacksonville Transportation Authority (JTA) has been awarded $15.4 million through the U.S. Department of Transportation‘s (USDOT) Low or No Emissions Buses & Bus Facilities Grant Program.
“Thanks to this significant investment by USDOT, and with the support of our Congressional leadership, the JTA will continue to advance sustainability efforts by phasing out more diesel buses with vehicles powered by cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG),” said JTA CEO Nathaniel P. Ford Sr. “We also will leverage this funding to invest in the future with infrastructure to support and integrate more electric-powered buses into our fleet.”
The proposed $21 million project comprises the Low-No grant and approximately $6 million in local match dollars. Through this project, JTA will retire 21 diesel buses that have reached or exceeded their useful life and replace them with the CNG-powered buses. The authority is also preparing for the next generation of carbon neutral electric buses by building the necessary infrastructure to support six additional battery electric buses funded through the State of Florida’s Volkswagen Settlement Program.
JTA began phasing out diesel buses with CNG with the launch of the First Coast Flyer Bus Rapid Transit Network, and through a public-private partnership with Clean Energy to build a CNG filling station on the JTA’s Myrtle Avenue Operations Campus. The authority added two battery-electric buses and charging stations in 2020, with the current fleet now comprising of 127 CNG buses, 61 diesel buses, seven hybrid diesel buses and two battery-electric buses.