The Center for Transportation and the Environment (CTE) partnered with the Santa Cruz Metropolitan Transit District (METRO) for a successful award under the Federal Transit Administration’s Buses and Bus Facilities Program in 2023. CTE is working with METRO to deploy 53 fuel cell electric buses (FCEBs) and a hydrogen fueling station.
By the time CTE’s contract with METRO was in place, METRO was already under contract with New Flyer for the procurement of the forty-four 40’ and nine 60’ FCEBs. The buses are scheduled to arrive before the completion of the hydrogen fueling station, with the first bus delivery planned for September 2024. With this aggressive bus delivery schedule, it is not feasible for METRO to have fueling infrastructure onsite in time to line up with the first bus delivery. CTE has informed METRO of the drawbacks of having buses prior to a fueling station, and CTE will work with METRO throughout the project to try to abate these drawbacks. Once the fueling station is complete and commissioned, the FCEBs will be placed into service and CTE will analyze key performance indicators for METRO’s first FCEB fleet for the first year of deployment.
CTE is currently assisting METRO with two different competitive procurement processes for hydrogen fueling infrastructure. One procurement is for an interim fueling solution and the second procurement is for a permanent hydrogen station. The interim fueling solution procurement is on hold pending funding decisions by METRO. As of July 2024, the permanent hydrogen station competitive procurement is active with proposals expected by late August 2024.
