RTA looking to 'electrify' Corpus Christi

The Regional Transportation Authority is looking to bring the future of public transit to Corpus Christi.

RTA officials gave people a glance at the not-so-distant future Monday by inviting them to ride a Proterra electric bus.

Catalyst, the 40-foot, 40-passenger model of Proterra's electric buses, runs off of two mattress-sized batteries, which can generally enable a bus travel about 250 miles before needing to fully charge. While the bus generally takes about 3 1/2 hours to charge, the bus utilizes charging dock stations installed at bus stops to continuously charge throughout the day while passengers board the vehicle. According to Dale Hill, founder of Proterra, the bus' battery is able to last about 16 hours.

With a growing demand for more eco-friendly ways of travel, Hill has had little trouble pitching the idea of zero-emission transit to the Federal Transit Administration and cities willing to try the new vehicles.

"We currently have 35 customers and have sold a total of 312 buses," he said. "We have 90 buses in revenue service and about 230 on back order, so we've been extremely busy."

While concern is warranted towards the electrical demand needed to power the bus infrastructure, RTA officials say the electrical costs used to pump and compress the natural gases on current CNG buses would be virtually identical.

"In the long term, it will have a better, positive affect on the environment here," RTA director of marketing, Kelly Coughlin said. "We wanted to let everyone know the concept of the electric bus is not as far off as it might seem. It's here."

With the FTA willing to fund 100 percent of the cost needed to develop the infrastructure that will power the electric transit system, RTA hopes to utilize said grants when they become available in April 2017.

"We're looking to get community partners to understand what we'd like to do," RTA CEO, Jorge Cruz-Aedo said. "We need to look at what the next generation of citizens will need."