Zero-Emissions Fleet Plans for CA Transit Agencies

Walker Consultants is helping transit agencies in California create FTA-compliant Zero-Emissions Fleet Transition Plans. Transit agencies may connect with Walker Consultants through the end of 2024 to seek assistance preparing your FTA Zero-Emission Plan.

Walker Consultants is providing this assistance at no cost to transit agencies thanks to funding support from the Federal Transit Administration. This assistance provided in partnership with Caltrans and the Fresno County Rural Transit Agency.

Email us at zeroemissions@walkerconsultants.com to discuss how Walker Consultants can provide no-cost planning and technical support as you prepare your FTA Zero-Emissions Fleet Plan.

Download our FTA Zero-Emission Fleet Transition Plan Guide (PDF) and the ZEV Funding Source Matrix (PDF).

What do transit agencies need to do?

This guide is intended for California public transit agencies that have an approved CARB ZEB Rollout Plan.

A completed CARB ZEB Rollout Plan has many of the same components required by the FTA Zero-Emission Fleet Transition Plan. California transit agencies can use their CARB ZEB Rollout Plan as a starting point to satisfy the FTA requirements, with additional information in a cover letter or addendum. This additional information includes identifying where the CARB plan answers the six FTA-required elements and/or adds any missing elements.

Agencies can use the FTA Zero-Emissions Plan Template and the FTA Zero-Emission Fleet Transition Plan Guide to produce a cover letter/addendum to their CARB ZEB Rollout Plan to fulfill FTA’s requirements.

Download the plan guide from the link at the top or bottom of this page. We’ll provide the plan template after you contact us.

Why do transit agencies need to do this?

The State of California’s Innovative Clean Transit (ICT) regulation was enacted on October 1, 2019. It requires that all public transit agencies gradually transition their fleets to zero-emission technologies. Starting in 2029, 100 percent of all transit agencies’ new bus purchases must be Zero-Emission Buses (ZEBs), with a goal of complete transition to ZEBs by 2040. The ICT regulation requires each transit agency to prepare a ZEB Rollout Plan, which should have been submitted by July 1, 2023. The California Air Resource Board (CARB) issued the ZEB Rollout Plan Guidance for Transit Agencies (“CARB ZEB Rollout Plan Guidance”), last updated on January 9, 2020, which provided California transit agencies with a template for preparing these plans.

The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law amended the statutory provisions for the Grants for Buses and Bus Facilities Competitive Program (49 U.S.C. § 5339(b)) and the Low or No Emission Program (49 U.S.C. § 5339(c)) to include a requirement that any application for projects related to zero-emission vehicles include a Zero-Emission Transition Plan.

What are the six key elements of a plan?

The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) Zero-Emission Fleet Transition Plan has six required elements:

1. Demonstrate a long-term fleet management plan with a strategy for how the applicant intends to use the current application and future acquisitions.
2. Address the availability of current and future resources to meet costs for the transition and implementation.
3. Consider policy and legislation impacting relevant technologies.
4. Include an evaluation of existing and future facilities and their relationship to the technology transition.
5. Describe the partnership of the applicant with the utility or alternative fuel provider.
6. Examine the impact of the transition on the applicant’s current workforce by identifying skill gaps, training needs, and retraining needs of the existing workers of the applicant to operate and maintain zero-emission vehicles and related infrastructure and avoid displacement of the existing workforce.

What do we need to create your plan?

1. Final CARB Zero-Emission Bus Rollout Plan
2. Information about any policies that the transit agency has related to zero-emissions vehicles.
3. Information about if and how the transit agency has coordinated with the utility or alternative fuel provider, such as the following:
   1. Letter of support from the utility or alternative fuel provider for the FTA funding the transit agency is applying for.
   2. Examples of the partnership between the utility provider and transit agency, such as:
      1. Past projects where you have worked with the utility/alternative fuel provider to install infrastructure.
      2. Planning efforts where the utility/alternative fuel provider participated in your project advisory committee.
      3. Coordination with utility provider to identify electric grid capacity and to identify electrical infrastructure upgrades necessary.
      4. Resiliency planning efforts with the utility/alternative fuel provider.
      5. Coordination meetings and/or communications with the utility/alternative fuel provider.
      6. Coordination between the utility/alternative fuel provider on charge/fueling rates.
   3. Identification of any incentive programs offered by the utility or alternative fuel provider, and programs that the transit agency participates in.
4. Additional information may be required as we review your CARB plan for compliance with FTA requirements.

Ready to work on a plan? Email us at zeroemissions@walkerconsultants.com to discuss how Walker Consultants can provide no-cost planning and technical support as you prepare your FTA Zero-Emissions Fleet Plan.

Download our FTA Zero-Emission Fleet Transition Plan Guide (PDF) and the ZEV Funding Source Matrix (PDF). We’ll provide the plan template after you contact us.