MILWAUKEE — The Milwaukee County Transit System has chosen a company to make MCTS' first-ever battery-electric bus that will be the workhorse of the upcoming rapid transit bus line.
Nova Bus will make 15 electric-powered LFSe+ buses: 11 of them will run on the upcoming East-West Bus Rapid Transit line, and the other four will be used along regular routes.
The BRT line will run nine miles between downtown Milwaukee and Wauwatosa, designed to connect residents to jobs, recreation and education across the area.
The $54.9 million project is supposed to be completed sometime in 2022, with service up and running by the end of the year. MCTS expects the line to service an average of 9,500 riders a workday.
The Federal Transit Administration is supposed to pick up most of the tab for the project.
MCTS said in a statement Thursday that riders will be able to enter the buses through either the front or back entrances due to wider aisles and level boarding.
The buses are able to operate 247 miles on a single charge. During the winter months, diesel-powered heaters will be installed to keep the passenger department comfortable.
MCTS says several components of the buses will be built and assembled at businesses in Pleasant Prairie, Racine, Greendale, Pewaukee, Elkhart Lake and Manitowoc.
The electric buses are expected to arrive in Milwaukee in the summer of 2022.
