ROCHESTER, N.Y. – RTS is the first public transit agency in the state of New York to start using buses powered by hydrogen fuel cells. On Tuesday, RTS rolled out two of the buses and it has ordered 10 more.

An executive order, signed by Governor Kathy Hochul, mandates that public transit agencies get to a 100% zero-emission bus fleet by 2040.

RTS currently has 20 electric plug-in battery buses in its fleet of 200, but they’re not working out as well as the agency had hoped.

“They’re very weather-dependent, so in the summer on a very nice day when you don’t have to have the AC as an example, we can get around 180-190 miles on an electric bus, in the winter when it’s really cold, that range cuts by about half,” says Miguel Velazquez, the CEO of RTS, “it takes three to five hours to charge an electric bus; it only takes about 10 minutes to fuel a hydrogen bus — so it really aligns much better with our operational needs.”

A 40-foot diesel bus costs around $750,000, a plug-in electric bus is on average $1.1 million and a hydrogen fuel cell bus is about $1.4 million, according to Velazquez. The hydrogen buses take 7-10 minutes to fuel and have a range of 275-325 miles in cold weather and 350-plus miles in moderate weather.

Jennifer Lewke, News10NBC: “Your capital to buy buses, does some of that come from ratepayers who ride the bus or is it almost all federal and state funding?”

Miguel Velazquez, RTS: “Pretty much 100% federal funding; most of our capital expenses are federal and then some from the state as well.”

Jennifer Lewke: “Are you confident you can meet the time restrictions that have been mandated to make a transition to clean energy?”

Miguel Velazquez: “So, right now we have a very robust plan, the Governor’s mandate is a transition of our fleet by 2040, we have a plan that meets that transition but of course, it’s funding dependent so, as long as the funding comes through we’re able to keep our plans on pace, we’ll be able to meet that date.”

It’ll cost $280 million to transition all of the buses at RTS alone. So, where do the two men vying to represent most of our area in Washington stand on the investment?

“I think we have no choice but to accelerate our work and to spend and invest in ways that is going to help this infrastructure be built and that transition to occur so we have to do it, I don’t think we have an option,” says Rep. Joe Morelle (D), Rochester. “I think that we have to move quickly on this and unless we’re prepared to see the huge impact that the climate crisis has on property and lives across this country, that’s only going to grow so, time is running out and we have to make this an urgent part of what we do in terms of public policy so, that’s why we’re trying to have aggressive timelines and work as fast as we can to make this happen.”

“With the hydrogen fuel cells, I think that’s great technology but we are spending a lot of money, a lot of money to replace a fleet that was replacing a fleet that was working. So, I’m a little concerned about that,” countered Gregg Sadwick (R), congressional candidate. “This is a much bigger question about our budget; we have a $36 trillion-dollar deficit and technologies that aren’t proven yet; there’s a place for them and that’s going to happen, but again the market should move that needle not the government jamming it down our throats and forcing mandates to get there.”

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