Your chances of riding an electric bus at RDU airport keep getting better
Raleigh-Durham International Airport is going all-in on electric buses.
RDU just ordered eight more, adding to the 10 it already operates between its passenger terminals and remote parking lots. The airport still has 12 diesel buses but hopes to retire those within a decade, according to Brian Mclean, the airport’s manager of fleet maintenance.
The Airport Authority board voted in May to buy the eight buses and charging equipment for about $9.6 million. It placed the order this month after it received a $3.4 million grant from the Federal Aviation Administration to help pay for them.
It will take about 18 months for them to arrive, Mclean said.
RDU was the first public bus system in the Triangle to begin using electrics. The airport’s first four arrived in May 2019.
The buses cost more than standard diesels, though government grants have helped close the gap. RDU officials say savings in fuel and maintenance make them a good deal in the long run.
Electric buses are also quieter and smoother and produce fewer emissions than diesels, a point board member Nina Szlosberg-Landis made when the board voted to buy eight more.
“This is not a small thing, not just in terms of our greenhouse gas emissions but also just public health, because of the idle times and buses running when they’re picking people up,” said Szlosberg-Landis, who represents Raleigh on the board. “We all know how horrible it smells with all of the exhaust.”
RDU’s first buses were made by Proterra, a California company with a factory in South Carolina. After a few years with its first Proterras, the airport ordered four more in the summer of 2022.
But the company ran into financial problems and idled its assembly lines during a bankruptcy. The company that took over Proterra’s bus business, PhoenixEV, then offered to sell six completed buses that Miami-Dade County ordered but couldn’t buy. RDU got the buses at roughly half off and incorporated them into its fleet this year.
PhoenixEV is also working to finish the four buses RDU ordered from Proterra. It’s not clear when the airport will receive those.
This story was originally published July 12, 2024 at 12:39 PM with the headline "Your chances of riding an electric bus at RDU airport keep getting better ."
