Davenport Adds 4 New Electric Buses To Fleet

There will be more travel options in Davenport soon.

According to a press release from the City of Davenport, they will be adding 4 new electric buses to the CitiBus fleet.

Currently there are 10 CitiBus routes across Davenport: orange, teal, yellow, red, blue, pink, brown, green, purple, and magenta. It covers about 30 square miles of Davenport with around 20 buses in it's current fleet.

Now, the city says that the 4 new "long-anticipated zero-emission buses" will phase out the 20-year-old diesel buses, which are higher-emission and costly.

The City of Davenport is working to transition to zero-emission buses, to "improve air quality in our community and reduce the operational cost of public transportation". The buses are paid for by a $4.8 million Federal Transit Administration Bus and Low-and No-Emission Grant, along with a $160,000 grant from MidAmerican Energy, and a $25,000 from the Regional Development Authority.

There's no word yet on when exactly service will start on the electric buses but they have been brought to town.

Iowa City has electric buses too but they had issues earlier this year when the whole EV fleet was out of commission. That was because the company that made those buses filed for bankruptcy and they couldn't get parts needed to repair the buses. Their electric buses also struggled to stay charged in freezing temperatures, so hopefully Davenport's new buses don't have that problem.

Chicago, the Cedar Rapids School District, Johnson County, and more places across Iowa and Illinois have added electric buses to their fleets in the last few years.