The University Transit Service officially unveiled its new fleet of electric minibuses April 3, aimed at matching long-term University sustainability goals. The new buses are scheduled to enter service as soon as they receive branding designs and staff training is completed.
For UTS, which hopes to be carbon-neutral by 2030 and fossil-fuel-free by 2050, the new electric minibuses — known as e-Jest — are a step in the right direction. The buses first gained prominence in Europe and are produced by Turkish company Karsan. And before being introduced at the University, the e-Jest buses entered the North American market in Canada in 2022 and came to the United States late 2023.
According to Second-year College Representative Ian Travis, who has worked with UTS and Student Council to improve safety and routes for UTS, the fully-electric e-Jest buses are around 17 to 19 feet long with a 160-mile range on one charge.
Travis, who is passionate about transportation issues, said that he was originally inspired to begin working on transportation due to the bus routes around first-year dorms.
“At U.Va., I wanted to get involved in [transportation]. I joined student life, and one of my big goals was to reroute the buses around the new dorms,” Travis said.
Ultimately, that goal was not possible given the narrow roads in the area. Travis mentioned his other bus-related initiatives that he was able to achieve instead, including increasing use of the Silver Line — a weekday UTS route with fewer stops — improving safety and ultimately and bringing e-Jest buses to the University.
In a statement to The Cavalier Daily, UTS general manager Allison Day said that the introduction of the Karsan e-Jest buses marks a step in advancing the agency’s long-term efforts.
“The average lifespan of a transit bus is 12-15 years, meaning that our department needs to take steps towards fleet transition now to be prepared for these long-term goals,” Day said.
Day said that creating a Fleet Transition Plan, a plan which outlines how UTS will switch to a new fleet of buses when the current ones age-out, is essential for long-term planning.
“One transit industry practice for sustainability planning is to pursue a Fleet Transition Plan that manages the long-term strategy for the agency. ” Day said. “UTS will be initiating a Fleet Transition Plan in 2025.”
According to Day, fleet transition will help UTS move toward its sustainability goals by introducing more electric vehicles to the fleet, starting with e-Jest.
Third-year Engineering student Pravallika Kullampalle said that as someone who lives far away from her Engineering classes, she hopes the minibuses, which feature shorter, localized routes as opposed to the longer routes of full-sized buses, can cut down her commute time.
“It was always difficult, because I knew that if I missed the bus, then I would have to walk to class, [adding] a much longer time to my commute,” Kullampalle said. “I think having the minibus system would really help, because I would be able to approximate the time needed, and I would actually be able to make the bus more often than in the past.”
And while she supports the transition to an electric fleet, she hopes that the new buses will cover more hard-to-reach areas on Grounds.
“Getting from the edge of Rice Hall to the Data Science building in a 10 to 15 minute slot is always really difficult,” Kullampalle said. “I’m also not entirely sure how many bus lines go from Faulkner and other on-Grounds housing that are farther from Central Grounds.”
One current bus route, the Gold Line, runs along Massie Road to the Faulkner housing area.
According to Travis, the new buses have some potential downsides that will need to be addressed, including that there is a limited range on one charge and limited capacity. Day said that the minibuses are ideal for low usage routes in the short term.
“There are many routes and services that do not operate at the passenger demand that require a full-size transit vehicle,” Day said. “A minibus is able to provide those lower passenger trips more efficiently than a large, diesel vehicle.”
The University community can also look forward to the introduction of five higher-capacity electric buses produced by Gillig, the same company that manufactures UTS’s current diesel fleet. The Gillig buses are set to be delivered in the fall and will be able to service all current routes.
Day still anticipates a delay between delivery and the buses entering service, saying she can not definitely say when they will be available to students for use.
Full bus routes for the new minibuses can be found on the UTS website and the TransLoc app.
Vyshnavi Tatta contributed to the reporting for this article.
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