Rather than buy another 40 electric buses, CapMetro is planning to install chargers at the end of each MetroRapid route. That's significantly more than similar 40- and 60-foot diesel-powered buses, which in 2017 cost Capital Metro about $535,000 and $760,000 respectively.Ĭapital Metro A Capital Metro diagram explains the features of the electric buses the agency is buying. The 60-foot buses go for around $1.37 million. 'Once we got the analysis done, we learned that it was a faulty planning assumption,' Watkins admitted.Įach 40-foot electric bus costs CapMetro about $917,000. Buses with depleted batteries would have been swapped out with fully charged vehicles, Watkins said.īut as CapMetro started building route schedules and working with a consultant to model electric vehicle use, the agency realized swapping out vehicles at the depot would require 80 electric buses, not the 40 they planned for. The 2023 timeline - developed before former CapMetro CEO Randy Clarke left Austin to run the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority - was based on an assumption that electric buses could be charged at bus depots.

'I am confident we are going to come through this with some great clarity.' 'Programs of this size and magnitude go through these murky moments,' Capital Metro CEO Dottie Watkins said.

The two-year setback was caused by several factors - including poor planning assumptions about charging the electric buses and shipping delays.

Capital Metro These two maps show the MetroRapid routes that were scheduled to launch this summer.

Metro schedules