RIPTA introduces new electric bus

PROVIDENCE – It runs quietly and has a green color scheme, but if there’s still any doubt about what powers the newest addition to the Rhode Island Public Transit Authority’s bus fleet, just look at the sign splashed across the side.

“I’m electric,” it declares. The million-dollar electric bus purchased with federal funds and unveiled Tuesday is set to go into operation before the end of the year on RIPTA’s busiest route, the R-Line, which runs from Cranston through downtown Providence and on into Pawtucket.

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The current investments in cleaner vehicles represent a good start, said Hank Webster, Rhode Island director of the Acadia Center, a regional environmental group. “Some of these investments are going to take time to ramp up, but I think we’re doing a considerable amount in the near term,” he said. “The strategy of prioritizing routes that go through communities overburdened by pollution is a sound one.”

Read the full article in The Providence Journal here.