Amtrak’s first electric bus began service Wednesday, Aug. 16 as part of the Seattle-to-Bellingham line. But before it rolled off on its historic first southbound trip, passengers were delayed at Fairhaven Station for reasons that might be familiar to users of smaller high-tech electronic items: the bus had to be rebooted.
The fancy vehicle remained parked for more than 10 minutes after passengers boarded as its systems were restarted and air compression rebuilt in its brakes.
The bus had begun its first route Wednesday morning, departing from Seattle’s King Street Station at about 10:30 a.m. There, U.S. Rep. Rick Larsen appeared alongside other sustainability and transportation officials and executives to commemorate and highlight features of the bus.
The arrival in Bellingham was met by Mayor Seth Fleetwood, Washington State Department of Transportation officials, Amtrak representatives and others. The bus is now scheduled to make two daily round trips from Seattle to Bellingham and back.
Amtrak plans to add more electric buses in the future, said Kara Oldhouser, Amtrak’s director of sustainability. MTRWestern, the charter bus company that owns and operates the electric bus, has committed to buying a portion of electric vehicles when purchasing more charter buses in the future.
“The most exciting part is this has been a project that we’ve been working on for a really long time,” said Jeremy Butzlaff, president of MTRWestern. “So, to see it come to fruition, to see people riding it, to see it actually on the street … it’s pretty exciting.”
As of 2019, 39% of greenhouse gas emissions in Washington were from transportation sources, according to data from the Department of Ecology. This electric bus alone will cut down on 109 tons of carbon dioxide emissions and save nearly 10,000 gallons of diesel fuel per year, Oldhouser said.
“At Amtrak, we try to give our passengers reliable, comfortable and sustainable travel options,” Oldhouser said. “And we are incorporating environmental considerations into our recent Climate Commitment.”
Amtrak’s commitment is to reach net zero carbon emissions by the year 2045, which was approved by its board of directors last year.
Both Amtrak and MTRWestern hope to continue introducing electric buses in the future, but it will depend on the infrastructure in place that supports the vehicles.
“It’s all about infrastructure from this point forward,” Butzlaff said.
Passenger Benedikt Singer, 25, didn’t know he was getting on Amtrak’s first electric bus, but was pleased when she found out. Singer, an intern at the University of Washington studying biochemistry, has been fascinated by the future of sustainable vehicles since high school.
“I think that electric vehicles definitely are the future for especially stationary-based transport,” Singer said.
