Metro plans to replace “up to 141 trolley buses,” says Rochelle Ogershok, using a combination of federal and agency capital funds. (Metro’s projected service cuts are due to shortfalls in operational funding.) The agency currently runs a fleet of 159. Continue reading New Flyer Trolley Buses Taking Over in Hilly, Hydro-Powered West-Coast Cities
Tesla just announced it made money in the first quarter of 2013 — $11 million on sales of $562 million, a turnaround in profit/loss of $100 million year-over-year — for the first time in its 10-year history. The resulting surge in its stock price, reports Bloomberg, meant that Tesla’s market cap exceeded that of Fiat/Chrysler. Continue reading Tesla’s Model S Bet Now Worth $8 Billion
These days Washington’s Department of Transportation is looking for every dollar that isn’t nailed down, and was aided slightly by a law (SB 5251), passed by the Legislature in spring of 2012, that asks electric-car owners to kick in. As of 2013, there will be an extra $100 annual fee due for road and highway improvements. Continue reading Washington’s Electric Car Drivers to Get Hit With No-Gas Tax
But even better, as the Slog notes, new electric trolleys would come with a power assist so that they can briefly go off-wire, and bypass anything that’s stuck in front of them. That tendency for trolleys to stack up powerlessly counted against them in last year’s audit; with the new buses, it wouldn’t.
Metro hasn’t decided on a generator or battery at this point, says O’Claire–a diesel generator could provide as much as 20 to 30 miles of off-wire travel, but Metro estimates that a mile to a mile and a half is all that would be needed. Continue reading Metro May Stick with Electric Trolley Bus with Benefits
