CATS discusses electric bus issues

Transit leaders from the Metropolitan Transit Commission (MTC) met Thursday and discussed its push for zero emissions. Charlotte Area Transit System (CATS) leaders said the push toward electric is working, but there are a few obstacles.

In the electric fleet, there are about 30% of the electric buses that don't work for their route. This route is longer than what the charge allows.

There's also something called a shake-out period. This means for some weeks, a battery electric bus was down more than it was working.

"We also learned we have space limitations when it comes to charging," a transit representative from CATS said. "The lots are full. It takes between four to five and a half hours to charge up a bus."

[LLievense-pk]

This is clearly a management problem with failure to match bus route capabilities to charging times and mileage limitations. WHY COULDN'T THESE CHARGING PROBLEMS BE IDENTIFIED IN ADVANCE??? How hard can it be to understand that if the route is twenty miles long and the bus charge is only good for 10 miles then an electric bus doesn't work? HOW HARD can it be to understand that if there are forty buses to be charged and there are only twenty charging stations the the electric bus fleet won't work???? And the lack of maintenance is just plain managerial incompetence, corruption and and lack of ability. Of course it'll be the riders who suffer, not the bus management team (who undoubtedly drive gas cars.). Gross corruption and managerial failure.

[TheClaudio]

All city hall iditos doing it together