Report: $800,000 Electric Buses Coming to County

By Andrew Metcalf

The county’s bus fleet will become a bit more amped up once an expected order of all-electric buses gets delivered sometime in early 2015.

Howard County plans to use a $2.7 million grant from the Department of Transportation to buy three $800,000 electric buses and a $250,000 charging station, according to a Baltimore Sun report.

The county is currently in the process of accepting bids for the buses, but expects to add them to the 10.4 mile “Green Route” that serves the Mall in Columbia, Wilde Lake, Howard Community College and Howard County General Hospital, according to the Sun report.

The electric buses cost about twice as much as the hybrid buses the county currently uses, but if they come out in 2015, as planned, they would be the first in the state, according to the report.