Touting Fed $, Rosa Rides The E‑Bus

Politicians shared a victory lap on the Connecticut Department of Transportation’s first electric bus Monday — and celebrated a future in which more routes and greener rides will be available for working-class people thanks to the new federal infrastructure law.

On her first full day as Hamden’s mayor, Lauren Garrett met with U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, New Haven Mayor Justin Elicker, State Sen. Jorge Cabrera and State Rep. Robyn Porter in one of CT Transit’s garages, located on State Street in Hamden, where 12 new electric buses are scheduled to park in the coming weeks. (The Department of Transportation runs the state’s bus service through CT Transit.)

The point of the event: The state is buying the buses at $900,000 a pop out of the $1.3 billion that CT Transit will receive over the course of five years through the newly enacted federal Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.

DeLauro, a champion of the bill as chair of the House Appropriations Committee, hosted Monday’s event to show how the money will help local communities.

“Infrastructure is really the driver of economic development,” Garrett declared Monday. ​“Our economic development, our infrastructure really need to be two things: Equitable and environmentally sustainable.”

DeLauro noted that CT Transit runs over 22 local routes — many of which operate seven days a week — that connect individuals around New Haven and Hamden to Meriden, Waterbury, Milford, and the Lower Naugatuck Valley.

“People need the services to get to work, to get to school, to see their doctors, to see their loved ones,” DeLauro said. ​“Transit is a lifeline in this state.”

She reported that Connecticut lost more than 90 percent of its ridership during the height of the pandemic.

With people returning to work and recovering economically from the pandemic, DeLauro said, the federal funding will support those who were disproportionately impacted by Covid-19.

Nonwhite households, she noted, are two times more likely to commute by public transport than white ones. Purchasing more electric buses — as well as revamping railroads and constructing new bus-only lanes to facilitate faster travel — will increase access to employment opportunities while decreasing the amount of fossil fuels polluting neighborhoods and exacerbating health conditions like asthma, which plague communities of color more so than white ones.

Paul Farrell, the assistant director of air planning and standards for the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, told the Independent that on an annual basis, electric buses on average reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 92.1 short tons, carbon monoxide emissions by 0.15 short tons, and nitric oxide emissions by .43 short tons.

Plus, the upcoming construction needed to implement these changes will create countless jobs, the crew of politicians repeated. Establishing universal pre‑k — as Hamden intends to do — and expanding child care across the country, DeLauro maintained, are important partner programs to support a healthy workforce.

“This is about health, this is about climate, this is about Rosa DeLauro being a champion for all of us at the capitol,” Justin Elicker summarized. How great is it, he noted, that a new mayor like Garrett can start off her first day in office with announcements of fresh funding.

“We can not only improve air quality locally and fight climate change globally, but we can also provide users of public transportation with the best technology we have to offer,” CTDOT Deputy Commissioner Garrett Eucalitto told his audience at the presser.

Then the group — including CT Transit workers — crowded onto the bus to test traveling around the block.

“You can tell it’s new because there are no fingerprints on the windows,” one passenger admired.

“It’s astonishing how quiet it is!” marveled another.

As the bus journeyed throughout town, DeLauro peppered Eucalitto with questions and chatted about the broader goals of the infrastructure plan.

In total, Connecticut is taking in $5.38 billion through 2026 to spend on infrastructure; that’s $1.63 billion more than from the most recent transportation bill enacted in 2015.

Eucalitto said the state’s last diesel powered bus was purchased last year. CT Transit owns 740 buses, all of which will be replaced with electric ones over the next 15 years (the maximum life span of the vehicles).

Electric buses cost around $300,000 more than diesel buses, which are valued at around $600,000. However, ​“purchasing isn’t the hard part,” Eucalitto explained. Most of the money will go towards retrofitting DOT’s garages to accommodate the buses, which means years of electrical work to successfully install new chargers.

Off the bus and away from the podium, Transit Union Chairman of the Connecticut Joint Bargaining Council Ralph Buccitti, described how he hopes to use the infrastructure bill to two Hamden Legislative Council members — Laurie Sweet and Justin Farmer — who attended the event along with Garrett.

It’s not just about high wage jobs, he said, but forty hour job guarantees. Because the infrastructure bill is not limited to capital expenditures, he wants the money to go towards an apprenticeship program to prepare individuals for full-time jobs in the field, investing in people and education rather than equipment alone.

Sweet suggested a partnership between the local garage and Hamden High, in line with Garrett’s goal of creating a pipeline between Hamden students and trade jobs.

“We still have to lobby and negotiate,” Buccitti reflected. But for once, ​“the money is here.”