Bloomington Transit’s board of directors has adopted a $35-million budget for 2023, which is more than double the figure for 2022.
Action to adopt the budget came at the board’s regular monthly meeting on Tuesday. The big increase is fueled by revenues that include $20.2 million in federal funding (much of it to buy electric buses), about $3.8 million in local income tax (LIT) revenue from the city of Bloomington, and $3.5 million from BT’s own reserves.
While four of the new battery electric buses in BT’s 2023 budget are replacement vehicles for old diesel-fueled buses already in the fleet, another eight are needed for the planned new east-west express route that the city of Bloomington’s contribution of LIT is supposed to help fund. Another six buses are needed to increase the frequency of service.
One kind of planned expanded service won’t require any additional buses—adding Sunday bus runs. Sunday service could be implemented as soon as the first quarter of 2023, BT general manager John Connell said on Tuesday.
BT is now all-in for battery electric buses. At Tuesday’s meeting, the board adopted a resolution that envisions a 100-percent battery electric bus fleet by 2050. Two interim goals in the resolution are to purchase only lower-emission and electric buses, and to transition to a 60-percent battery electric bus fleet by 2030. Continue reading “Bloomington Transit all in for electric buses, expansion of service, adopts $35M budget”