One transit agency in Montana is taking steps to help keep the air clean in its mountain valley home.

Mountain Line, based in Missoula, Mont., is taking steps to transition to a fully zero-emission fleet and recently converted over half of its fixed-route fleet to electric buses. 

With this milestone, the company is well on its way to achieving its goal of having a zero-emission fleet by 2035.

Mountain Line has 29 buses in its fleet, including 16 electric buses. Ten more electric buses will be put into service this spring, leaving only three diesel buses in service.

Choosing Electrification

The agency naturally decided to electrify its fleet to help combat the poor air quality, especially noticeable in winter. 

While removing a source of pollutants is a major goal of the project, a forward-thinking mindset also contributed.

“Our agency’s always been pretty forward-looking and excited about innovating,” said Jordan Hess, CEO/GM of Mountain Line. “We are really inquisitive about new technologies and keeping tabs on new technologies, but some of the practicalities around electrification were really appealing to our board. Missoula is a community that really cares about its people and the natural environment and is a community that has ambitious climate goals.”

In 2015, Mountain Line experienced electric bus technology firsthand when Proterra gave them a demonstration. This demonstration led to the decision to pursue electrification.

Funding the Project

When making a significant shift in how a fleet operates, funding is often one of the first things that need to be addressed.

With help from the Center for Transportation and the Environment, the agency was able to secure grant funding for six buses in their 2017 grant cycle. This enabled them to launch a pilot program for electric bus technology.

“It truly was a pilot; we did not get rid of any diesel buses, and we were unsure of what to expect from them,” said Jennifer Sweten, Mountain Line’s director, operations. “It was a fast-learning curve, we relied a lot on OEMs and the few agencies that were ahead of us at that time in electrification. One of those is our local university system, which had some of the first-generation electric buses on their campus.”

Since the initial pilot funding, the project has changed thanks to programs such as the bipartisan infrastructure law, which opened up several funding opportunities for electrification projects.

Mountain Line’s grant team also played a significant role in keeping the project moving forward by securing federal grants. 

In addition, the community of Missoula is supporting the project through two ballot measures that help fund the agency.

Getting Infrastructure in Place

Transitioning to electric vehicles involves a lot more than buying buses, however. 

When the initial six buses were secured, Mountain Line had many preparations to make before putting them into service.

The first step was meeting with the utility company to ensure there would be enough power to charge the buses. 

To keep costs down, the agency started talks to get a rate tariff that would be friendly to a transit agency, which is still in progress today.

New equipment was also needed, apart from electricity to power the buses. A new lift for the buses to allow maintenance was installed, along with chargers and electrical service upgrades.

“When the buses arrived in the summer of 2019, we were pretty confident,” said Sweten. “We thought we had done everything we needed to do, but it quickly became evident that we did not.”

As an early adopter of electric bus technology, unexpected challenges became apparent. One of these was the need to redo the HVAC system in their bus barn due to the height of the buses. 

In addition, they needed to purchase a forklift to help personnel perform maintenance on the top of the buses.

Training the Workforce

Training is an important part of transitioning to electric vehicles, and Mountain Line also encountered obstacles on that front. 

With the buses arriving in the summer of 2019, it was not long before air travel restrictions were put in place due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

This made it challenging for the OEMs to send staff to help train the agency’s maintenance team. 

Determined to make the pilot a success, Mountain Line’s maintenance team turned to technology to help them connect with experts who could explain what they needed to know.

With limited resources for training on electric vehicle technology, the agency has begun hosting their training in-house. 

The electric vehicle space is quickly changing, and technicians must constantly learn about new tools and equipment. 

The differences also saw Mountain Line evaluate what parts they needed to keep on hand, as they differed between electric and diesel buses.

Tackling Range

A common challenge that needs to be addressed is the range of electric vehicles. The cold climate that the agency experiences complicates this.

“We knew that in our cold climate, we would have range issues,” said Sweten. “We were not anticipating the range issues to be as severe as they were. Nor were we expecting other conditions to factor into that range, such as icy streets, because once the wheels break loose, the regenerative braking power shuts off.”

Route modeling and increasing onboard storage capacity found a solution. 

In addition, a change management system was implemented to use the fleet more effectively.

Moving Forward

With the fixed route fleet on track to be fully zero-emission soon, Mountain Line hopes to apply what they learned to their paratransit service and smaller vehicles.

In addition to buses, the agency is planning to replace all of its vehicles, including shop trucks and snowplows, with electric vehicles. Plans for a new zero-emission facility are also being developed to further reduce the agency's pollutants.

Mountain Line has also partnered with the Big Sky Passenger Rail Authority to prepare for future connectivity between rail and bus services.

While Missoula does not currently have a rail stop, this partnership will allow residents to expand their travel options further.

While the journey to electrify its fleet has seen a fair share of challenges, the agency is hopeful about the future.

“Some of the challenges are ongoing, and they’re similar to what other places are seeing: continued supply chain issues, new technology hiccups, and growing pains in the industry,” said Hess. “But on the other side of that coin is that challenges create opportunities to grow. They create opportunities to learn new things, to develop new processes, and I would say that we’ve come out really strong as an agency because we’ve had to work through a few challenges.”

As Mountain Line continues to navigate the challenges of an ever-changing electric vehicle industry, the community of Missoula is taking pride in the electric buses. The effort of electrifying their fleet is paying off, from cost savings to improved air quality.