St. Petersburg, Fla.’s Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority (PSTA) was awarded $5 million as part of the Federal Transit Administration State of Good Repair grant program to replace old buses.

Once the new buses arrive, — in approximately one year — one out of every six of PSTA’s buses will be diesel-electric hybrid. PSTA also recently began purchasing hybrid sedans for its supervisory and other support vehicles.

The economic downturn caused PSTA to defer 100 percent of its bus replacements from its five‐year capital program, and the 13‐year old buses that these funds will replace have the greatest number of breakdowns of the nearly 200 buses in PSTA’s fleet.

This is PSTA’s first competitive grant award from the U.S. Department of Transportation.