With the support of CTE's Smart Deployment Services, the city of Lawrence, Kansas unveiled five 40-foot GILLIG battery-electric buses on Saturday, June 25 to replace five diesel buses that have exceeded their useful life.
The five battery-electric GILLIG buses and their charging infrastructure provided by ChargePoint are funded by a 2020 Federal Transit Administration (FTA) Low or No Emission Vehicle (Low-No) grant. CTE assisted Lawrence in the development of the project concept and completion of the Low-No grant application.
The city of Lawrence, Kansas offers public transportation through the Lawrence Transit System and the University of Kansas - together encompassing 20 fixed routes: 10 city routes, 2 coordinated routes, and 8 university routes, covering 31 square miles within the city limits of Lawrence. The five zero-emission buses will reduce Lawrence Transit's annual greenhouse gas emissions by 282 tons.
CTE supported all phases of this deployment, including:
- Project management;
- Route, rate, and charge modeling;
- Development of bus and fueling specifications; and
- Validation testing
CTE is also developing a Key Performance Indicators (KPI) dashboard to assess the overall impact and benefits of the zero-emission buses in Lawrence's fleet. With unrivaled expertise in clean transportation technologies, CTE bridges the gaps between operators and the industry to mitigate risk and ensure these vehicles are successfully deployed.
Two additional battery-electric buses have been secured by Lawrence Transit through a successful 2021 Low-No grant application, and CTE looks forward to continuing to support Lawrence, Kansas in their goal of transitioning their fleet to electric by 2035.
