“Three years ago, the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority laid out a timeline to electrify its bus fleet by the end of the next decade. With the agency facing a state mandate to get the job done, the plan was more than just an ambitious climate goal.
By 2028, the MBTA aimed to have purchased hundreds of battery electric buses, enough to make up nearly 30 percent of its fleet, and to overhaul the first three of its maintenance facilities to charge the vehicles.
Today, only eight buses of more than 1,000 are all-electric, and garage retrofit and rebuild projects are years behind schedule, casting serious doubt on the T’s ability to fully deliver on its electrification obligations by 2040.
‘There’s no way they are going to meet it,’ said Brian Kane, executive director of the MBTA Advisory Board.
He posed a question many are now wondering: ‘What’s the plan?’…”
By Shannon Larsen | 05/28/25