With battery-powered cars widely in use, it was only a matter of time before the concept spread to public transit. Two transit systems in California and Washington State are taking a stab at more pocket and eco-friendly transportation options: powering with lithium ion batteries. These projects are mostly funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) and are truly paving the way for innovative solutions to the high cost of driving.
Foothill Transit, which is a bus line that runs from Pasadena to Ponoma, just east of Los Angeles, CA, serves over 14 million passengers per year and reaches over 550 square miles. Alternatively, LINK Transit in Wenatchee, WA is a trolley system that serves a rural community of about one million passengers per year in an area almost 10 times the size of that in California. These trolleys can be recharged in about seven minutes time and each of these systems have a “long-term vision on battery power as a way to reduce costs, improve operational efficiencies and reduce environmental impact.”
To read more, see Scientific American‘s article, “A Tale of 2 Transit Systems: Battery-Powered Buses Enter the Mainstream“