The Fairbanks North Star Borough wants to continue swapping out vehicles in its public transit fleet with new buses that run on compressed natural gas (CNG). And on Friday, the borough announced it received another grant from the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) to contribute to the ongoing project.
The grant is worth a little more than $3.1 million and comes from a program meant to help state and local governments purchase or lease zero- or low-emissions transit vehicles.
The borough has been working for years to phase out the diesel-powered buses and gasoline-powered vans in its fleet for the Metropolitan Area Commuter System (MACS). Borough Mayor Grier Hopkins said the initiative, which has repeatedly drawn federal support, has a few advantages locally.
“A lot of our fleet is aging, and this is an opportunity to both get new buses at a very good match in partnership with the federal government and provide better service to the community as well as clean our air and lower our operating costs,” he said.
The effort dates back to at least 2019. That’s when the borough assembly passed a resolution to support switching the diesel and gasoline fleet over to CNG vehicles.
The first three CNG buses hit borough routes this spring. Hopkins said they’re performing well in the Interior’s cold climate so far and that he’s heard good things from drivers.
“In my conversations with our borough drivers, they love these new buses,” he said. “They’re like driving a new car when you take one that’s off the lot instead of driving your old beater with a heater.”
In March, the borough assembly’s finance committee approved spending about $4.3 million to purchase another five CNG buses, which cost about $870,000 apiece, according to a borough memo. With the help of 20% local matches, that contract was funded by two other awards the borough had gotten from the Federal Transit Administration in previous years. Borough Transportation Director Michelle Denton said by email Monday she expects those five buses to arrive in “late summer/early fall.” She said, currently, the system’s fleet still includes 13 diesel buses and two gasoline vans.
The buses bought through the March contract are manufactured by Gillig, LLC, a California-based company that describes their buses as featuring “state-of-the-art technology, delivering ultra-low emissions and uncompromising performance.”
The $3.1 million federal grant the borough announced last week will be subject to an assembly vote before the administration could use the funds to pursue buying more CNG vehicles. That’s because, like the prior federal awards, it requires a 20% local match, which means the assembly must first agree to appropriate the money through ordinance.
Denton said in the email that the administration will propose using the Transit Enterprise Fund to foot that bill, as it has before. That fund is largely reserved for MACS expenses and maintenance of the borough’s vehicle fleet. It’s subsidized by the borough’s general fund but partially financed by user fees, advertising and other revenue sources. According to borough budget documents, the available balance in that fund was estimated to sit at $3.6 million as of the end of June.
Denton said the fleet changeout is currently not expected to increase the number of routes offered or bring back weekend service, saying the “continued service reduction has been a result of staffing.”
Last year, the borough also cut the ribbon on a $30 million transit facility, which includes a CNG refueling station. The majority of that project was also funded by the federal government, with two federal grants totaling about $23 million.
In Friday’s news release, the borough noted that the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) also received federal funding to build a CNG refueling facility, and that “[h]aving two CNG fueling stations in Fairbanks will mutually support the FNSB and UAF in the event either station is temporarily offline for maintenance.”
According to planning documents, Interior Alaska’s Metropolitan Planning Organization, Fairbanks Area Surface Transportation Planning, has directed about $2.7 million in funding from Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality program for UAF to build that station and purchase CNG buses for its fleet between 2027 and 2030.