LA’s DASH Bus Loop Gets An Electric Bus (+ 3 More To Come)
The City West-to-Arts District A route of the Los Angeles Department of Transportation’s DASH bus loop service is now using an all-electric bus — the first of 4 that the organization plans to put into service.
The all-electric bus entered service in the city last month, hopefully serving as a sign of things to come — especially given how polluted the Los Angeles area is.
The DASH service, for those unfamiliar with it and shaking their head right now, is a service that consists of buses running various loops through the city that only cost 50 cents per ride.
Notably, the new bus will reportedly save the city around $16,000 a year in maintenance and fuel costs. The buses are also quieter than typically used. Though, in a city as noisy as Los Angeles, maybe that won’t matter much.
LA Mag provides some interesting background and context:
“The buses can travel about 150 miles on a full charge, which only takes three hours at the buses’ maintenance facility in South LA. On top of all that, they offer free wifi, something not offered on any other buses in the city.
“With all these perks, you’d think the county transit agency — mammoth Metro — would be jumping on the electric bandwagon. Not so much. Unlike Pasadena’s Foothill Transit, which has embraced full-sized electric buses, Metro is sticking with its CNG buses for its approximately 2,400-bus fleet. Rumblings on Reddit indicate a recent electric pilot went sour, which spooked Metro from committing to plug-in transit until at least 2025 (commenters say the buses ‘had serious issues’).”
2025 is still a ways off, and Los Angeles’ air quality is seemingly getting worse by the year, so hopefully the transit agency doesn’t wait that long. Of course, CNGs are still considerably less of a problem in that regard than more commonly used diesel buses are.
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