New electric city buses ‘just a starting point’

New electric buses for the city of La Crosse are ‘just a starting point.’

New transit manager Adam Lorentz said the big grant just announced by the feds to buy electric buses will hopefully move the city entirely in that direction for transit.

It won’t be just for their environmental impact — the buses have zero emissions — says Lorentz, but also because they’re just cheaper to run.

“For the day-to-day operations, yeah, it’s going to eliminate a lot of money for the taxpayers’ cost,” he said.

The city currently has a fleet of 21 buses. The new $1.25 million federal grant will likely replace three of those with new, electric buses and their charging stations.

But those three electric buses won’t be it for the city. Lorentz says it’s just an indicator of things to come.

“It is the wave of the future,” he said. “As you can see that’s why i think these grants are starting to come out there

“We’re all very cognizant of the carbon footprint that we’re laying in the community right now and other cities are in similar situations. So I do see this as the wave of the future for buses.”

Lorentz says the amount of local matching funds for the buses has not been determined.

The three new electric buses, which Lorentz says bus can run up to 4 hours on a full charge, will replace three older, diesel models.

No word on when the new buses will join the fleet.

For more info on the buses, click here.