Senators Tim Kaine and Mark Warner announced earlier this week that the Blacksburg Transit is receiving $1.4 million in federal grant money to add to its fleet in an effort to keep up with growing ridership.
BT is adding two 60-foot buses, commonly referred to as articulated buses, according to transit Director Tom Fox.
He applied for the grant in August 2017 and said receiving the buses may take just as long.
“We usually plan on about 12 to 18 months on delivery of new buses. This includes time to get the grant processed and production time at the factory,” Fox said. “The timeframe could be shortened depending on the manufacturer’s backlog at the time we place the order.”
The buses have 54 seats, but can hold double that when including standing passengers. BT currently has 11 articulated buses and 69 total.
Ridership was approximately 3.7 million for fiscal year 2017 and is expected to surpass four million this year (FY 18).
BT announced last month that it would be changing the design it had been using since its inception in 1983.
According to a news release from March, the objective was to “increase awareness of BT in the community by refreshing our bus exterior package with graphics that better reflect our core essence…constant motion.”
The transit system serves the towns of Blacksburg, Christiansburg and limited portions of Montgomery County, but VT students, faculty and staff account for 95 percent of all riders, according to the release.
The new design will be used on all BT revenue vehicles except Christiansburg-identified vehicles and those that are wrapped with paid advertising or public service messages.
The first bus with the updated design was unveiled in mid-March and the rest are expected to be ready by the 2018 fall semester.
