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Front Page » Transportation » Deadline electric bus deal fuels new South Dade rapid transit

Deadline electric bus deal fuels new South Dade rapid transit

Written by on January 24, 2023
  • www.miamitodayepaper.com
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Deadline electric bus deal fuels new South Dade rapid transit

New 60-foot battery electric buses are now geared to roll in two years on the South Corridor Rapid Transit Project, which was delayed during the pandemic as a global supply pinch stalled progress. Before that, service had been planned to start this month.

Under the gun to order the buses by month’s end to retain the bidder’s price guarantee in the face of inflation and supply issues, commissioners last week voted 12-1 to buy 100 buses for more than $175 million to get them rolling by February 2025.

Because time was tight, a committee didn’t discuss the contract first.

District Commissioner Kionne McGhee called back the vote during the meeting, saying he had inadvertently allowed it to pass unanimously. While he didn’t explain his “no” vote, he has been a proponent of rail service for the corridor, part of the Smart Program to add six legs of rapid transit. The 20-mile-long South Dade corridor, which extends south to Homestead, alone was targeted for buses, an issue that has been hotly debated.

The contract with New Flyer of America calls for a pilot bus to arrive in October, followed by 60 so-called left-handed buses arriving between June 2024 and February 2025. To serve the transitway, they are designed with special doors on the left side to align with the 14 stations’ platforms to allow level boarding, with no step up.

“As such, not any bus will do and these particular buses are critical to procure in time for the South Corridor opening,” says a memo from county Chief Operations Officer Jimmy Morales.

The remaining 40 buses are to open on the right side for other bus routes. They are to arrive by July 2025.

The contract includes 50 depot base battery chargers and two on-route charging systems. Optional are spare parts, training and tools at prices not included in the deal.

The Morales memo says “battery-electric buses are generally best suited for lower-speed, stop-and-go driving as is typified by the majority of the [transit department’s] bus operations.” The memo does not explain why the county is buying lower-speed buses for rapid transit as opposed to block-by-block city stops.

“Studies indicate the total lifetime cost to own and operate a battery-electric bus is approximately 35% lower than that of a diesel bus,” the memo said. “This purchase is aligned with the Administration’s goal of having at least 50% of Transit’s bus fleet battery electric powered by 2035.”

The Citizens’ Independent Transportation Trust recommended approval of the contract with New Flyer, which Mr. Morales wrote is “now the largest bus manufacturer in North America.” The only other bidder was disqualified when it refused to sign the county’s waiver of confidentiality.

The new service is to run on the South Dade Transitway, the former roadbed of Henry Flagler’s Florida East Coast Railway, a rail line discontinued in 1972 and sold to the transit department in 1979. In 2018, South Dade service was pledged to start operation in 2022, but a battle over Metrorail extension south and then the supply chain issues slowed progress. The county says the last of the 14 stations is to be completed by March 2024.

Though level boarding platforms in stations now rising are created for conversion to rail, any conversion has been conditioned upon user numbers that are likely to be unattainable soon, if ever. County transit use in all modes has been falling; in the last four years it is down more than 27%.

5 Responses to Deadline electric bus deal fuels new South Dade rapid transit

  1. omar

    January 28, 2023 at 12:05 am

    I’m so excited for our new shitty buses

  2. Olis Buchanan

    February 25, 2023 at 10:41 am

    The county is buying “lower speed buses” for rapid transit. The county has created a Frankenstein system with seemingly endless connections and then scratch their heads and wonder why transit use has fallen. The county Commissioners have doomed the city to decades of ineffective transit. There is nothing smart about endless transfers

    • TransitJ

      March 10, 2023 at 1:08 pm

      Wait til you see what’s coming with the so-called “Better Bus Network.”

  3. Emily

    March 4, 2023 at 6:23 pm

    Gasto de dinero cuán eso esas terminales y autobuses costosisimos no transportarán más personas que las actuales destinen ese dinero para controlar ayudar a el número creciente de adiptos e indigentes ambulantes .

  4. John

    April 13, 2023 at 2:30 am

    We don’t need electric buses. Just convert it to a metrorail please for the sake of everybody

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