No one spoke at a public hearing before City Council on December 16 for the allocation of $7.5 million in state, local, and federal money for Charlottesville Area Transit to purchase replacement vehicles.
“We are buying 10 buses as a part of the $7.5 million,” said Garland Williams, CAT’s director. “Two of the buses are battery electric. That is part of our expansion.”
In March, Council agreed to proceed with a plan to test both battery-electric vehicles and hydrogen-powered vehicles as a way of becoming fossil-free by 2040. These battery-electric vehicles will be purchased from the manufacturer Gillig and Williams said his agency will need to install the infrastructure necessary for charging but that’s not part of this allocation.
The other eight buses will be diesel and Williams said they are among the last CAT will purchase. He said those are already on order and may be here in February.
The allocation will be made after a second reading on January 6, 2025.
Shortly after no one spoke at the public hearing, one of Albemarle County’s deputy county executives appeared before Council to explain the purpose of the proposed Charlottesville-Albemarle Regional Transit Authority.
Ann Wall said the Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission has been shepherding the creation of a Regional Transition Plan that culminated in a transit governance study.
“The Transit Governance Study recommended that the region initiate the formation of a transit authority envisioned in the 2009 legislation,” Wall said. “It recommended early decision discussions regarding regional planning efforts with the idea of a shared vision, establishing bylaws, engaging rural localities and engaging transit partnerships.”
Albemarle County voted to join what will be known as CARTA earlier this month. (read that story)
That Regional Transit Vision also covered other localities in the Thomas Jefferson Planning District and there is a chance some of them could join in the future because the 2009 legislation that authorized CARTA includes them.
“It also says that Fluvanna, Green, Louisa and Nelson can come along as partners,” said Ben Chambers, the city’s transportation planning manager. “We have had conversations with them and they’d like to see how we pull this together ourselves first before jumping in with us. But there is still interest in watching to see how this progresses and seeing if there’s an opportunity for them to join in the future.”
One of the first steps for CARTA will be to seek a planning grant from the Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation. At the moment, the authority will not be able to see actual funding for transit projects nor will it operate any of the transit agencies. Chambers said this is another initial step.
“What this authority is giving us is a table to sit down at so that we can collectively, city, county and all the various transit agencies, decide what we need for transit going forward and figuring out how we resolve some of those questions between the agencies and the jurisdictions,” Chambers said.
City Councilor Michael Payne said the formation of the authority is another step toward transit being a viable alternative to driving. He said another entity needs to be part of the conversation.
“I think UVA’s participation will be vital because I could see that doubling ridership in the amount of money we get, and I think it’ll have its ultimate impact will be limited as long as UVA is not fully at the table with us,” Payne said.
The vote for Charlottesville to join CARTA was unanimous.
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