The Center for Transportation and the Environment (CTE) is leading an effort for the Delaware Transit Corporation (DTC) to develop a full fleet transition plan to assist in transitioning the entire DTC fleet to 100% zero-emission technology by 2040. The plan is in alignment with DTC’s Climate Action Plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and increase Delaware’s resilience to climate change. Overall project goals are to assess the feasibility of the transition and to analyze technology options, transition timelines, and relevant costs.
CTE has adapted its zero-emission bus (ZEB) transition planning methodology to meet DTC’s specific needs. The transition planning methodology progresses through a series of assessments to form a cohesive analysis of DTC’s ZEB transition options. The ZEB transition plan will be based on DTC’s current fleet replacement schedule and will be a “living” document that the agency can continue to update as the technology supporting ZEBs and charging equipment continues to improve over time. Due to DTC’s desire for a mixed ZEB fleet, having both battery electric buses (BEBs) and fuel cell electric buses, CTE is focusing on two main ZEB transition scenarios: a BEB majority mixed fleet and a FCEB majority mixed fleet.
CTE completed the service, fleet, and fuel assessments for DTC in 2022. In November 2022, DTC notified CTE of the agency’s plan to undergo a strategic change in future fleet projections, which would require CTE to redo the previous three assessments with updated procurement details before moving forward with the rest of the transition plan. By December 2023, CTE had updated the service, fleet, maintenance, and fuel assessments with the new fleet data, and had completed the initial analysis results for the facilities assessment. Additionally, CTE completed the Resilience, Redundancy, and Response assessment by April 2024.
Since Q1 2024, CTE and DTC have been working to collect estimated costs for service upgrades from one of DTC’s electric utility providers to help inform the facilities assessment, at the request of DTC. Once this information is received, CTE will be able to finalize the facilities and total cost of ownership assessments, as well as finalize the transition plan report for DTC and close out the project.
