Pelfrey responded that unlike school buses, which typically rack up 10,000 miles per year, ones used for mass transit travel three times as far and are built to a heavy-duty standard because they must run all day long. Supervisor Daniel Storck (D-Mount Vernon), a former School Board member, inquired why officials used a 12-year life expectancy for mass-transit buses, but a 15-year one for school buses. It currently takes one to two years to obtain buses and system officials hope to have four in time for that initiative. The electric buses will operate out of Fairfax Connector’s West Ox Bus Division on routes in western and central Fairfax County that serve minority populations along Interstate 66 and Routes 50 and 123.įour of the routes operate all day, three are in service during either peak or off-peak hours and one, going between Vienna and the Pentagon, will allow system officials to evaluate long-haul service.įairfax Connector officials have begun planning for another pilot electric-bus program for the southern part of the county in the Lee and Mount Vernon districts, starting in 2023. ![]() Bus deliveries, operator training and maintenance support will begin in October and the pilot program is slated to begin service in December after the manufacturer delivers the final buses.įairfax Connector will put eight New Flyer Xcelsior electric buses into service on Routes 461 (Flint Hill-Tapawingo-Vienna Metrorail Station), 462 (Dunn Loring-Navy Federal-Tysons), 467 (Dunn Loring-Tysons), 622 (Penderbrook-Fair Ridge), 630 (Centreville South-Fair Oaks-Vienna Metro), 642 (Sully Station-Vienna Metro), 651 (Chantilly-Brookfield-Vienna Metro) and 698 (Vienna-Pentagon). ![]() Officials expect the bus manufacturer to start producing the electric buses in late July, said Pelfrey during a June 14 briefing of the Board of Supervisors’ Transportation Committee. The transit system already has made progress on the program, installing chargers and transformers at the electric buses’ facility in June and making other modifications there, said Dwayne Pelfrey, Transit Services Division chief for the Fairfax County Department of Transportation. ![]() Fairfax Connector officials by year’s end aim to begin a pilot program featuring electric buses on eight routes in central Fairfax County – and are gearing up for a similar effort in the county’s southern reaches.
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