For the past two years, the Chicago metro chapter of the Climate Reality Project has been urging the CTA to pursue electrification of its fixed route bus fleet more aggressively.
Even though the CTA has promised to operate a 100% zero-emission bus fleet by 2040, it continues to order new diesel buses. In 2021, CTA signed a contract for 600 new diesel buses, and these buses will continue to be delivered through 2025. CTA buses have an operating lifespan of 14 years, so these new diesel buses will continue to emit dangerous greenhouse gases for almost the entire decade of the 2030s.
We are in the midst of a climate emergency, and everyone has a responsibility to end the reliance on fossil fuels. The CTA’s fleet of 1,860 buses is a significant emitter of greenhouse gases. (We estimate approximately 3% of all greenhouse gas emissions from on-road vehicles within Chicago are emitted from the operation of the CTA bus fleet. This is an extraordinary amount of greenhouse gas emissions from a single fleet operator).
Bus electrification is also essential for reducing CTA’s operating costs. Conservatively, we estimate that a CTA fully electric bus fleet will save the region more than $74 million annually in fuel and operating costs. This is based on a savings of $40,000 in fuel and maintenance costs annually per electric bus compared to a diesel bus, as estimated by a 2021 analysis of transit operations for the Buffalo, New York metro transit system.
CTA’s lack of progress is in stark contrast to Pace, operator of our region’s suburban fixed route bus system. Three years ago, we urged Pace to adopt a 100% zero-emission bus fleet goal and we have been very appreciative of the Pace board’s responsiveness to our concerns. They adopted a very aggressive plan to electrify their total fleet of 700 fixed-route transit buses. When we were unable to convince the CTA to stop ordering diesel buses, we worked with the Illinois Environmental Council and Illinois state legislative leaders to pass a bill this year that bans fossil fuel purchases by Pace and CTA.
The Illinois legislature set the deadline of July 1, 2026, instead of earlier as we proposed, as the CTA lobbied hard to have a later deadline and put in language that would make the ban unenforceable if the CTA does not have the funding or facilities ready to charge electric buses.
Falling behind on ‘Charging Forward’
After reviewing the CTA’s capital plan for 2024, we are now fearful that the caveats it wanted in the legislation are becoming more of a reality as the CTA appears to be failing to make the necessary progress to even make that 2040 deadline. In its current five-year capital plan, it is spending only $343 million on bus electrification projects.
In contrast, with a much smaller fleet, Pace has programmed almost the same amount, $311 million over the next five years. Surprisingly, the CTA, which has many challenges with its older garages, is spending less money over the five-year period, only $150 million, on retrofitting its garages for charging electric buses or building electrification at terminals. Pace is planning to spend $233.4 million on garage electrification over the next five years.
The CTA is falling far behind its own “Charging Forward” electrification plan adopted in 2021, a plan that was already much slower than Pace’s and every other major transit system in the country. CTA’s 103rd Street bus garage construction was supposed to start in 2023, according to CTA’s electrification plan, and that garage was also supposed to begin accepting electric buses this year. The CTA’s current five-year capital plan is just programming that money now.
The 77th Street garage construction was supposed to start in 2024 and start accepting electric buses in 2027. There is no mention of that garage in this five-year plan. The 74th Street garage construction is supposed to start in 2028 and accept electric buses in 2029. Again, no capital project is programmed for this garage in the current capital five-year plan.
We are in a climate emergency and the CTA does not seem to be operating in a way that recognizes this crisis. Chicago and the entire planet deserve better from the CTA.
Bruce W. Mainzer is a former mass transit executive for the RTA, Illinois Department of Transportation and Metro-North Commuter Railroad in New York City. He serves on the electric vehicle campaign and fleet electrification campaign of the Chicago metro chapter of The Climate Reality Project.
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