(4 Mar 2023)
FOR CLEAN VERSION SEE STORY NUMBER: 4422562
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Chicago - 2 March 2023
1. Mid of Michigan Avenue as blue electric Chicago Transit Authority passes through intersection on Chicago's 'Magnificent Mile.'
2. Close of electric bus as it approaches. UPSOUND 'Caution. Bus approaching. Caution. Bus approaching.'
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Chicago - 14 February 2023
++SOUNDBITE PARTIALLY OVERLAID++
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Don Hargrove, senior maintenance manager, Chicago Transit Authority :
"We have never ran out of charge while we've been out on a daily route. So we've never had to go out and bring a bus back in because it's actually ran out of sustainable power."
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Chicago - 2 March 2023
4. Close of overhead charger charging bus at Navy Pier stop
5. Close of side of electric bus saying 'electric bus' with voltage images on each side6. Wide of electric bus charging at Navy Pier with another electric bus seen at the stop behind it.
ANNOTATION: The Chicago Transit Authority is hopping on the electric bus trend with the goal of having an all-electric fleet of city buses by 2040.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Chicago - 14 February 2023
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Don Hargrove, senior maintenance manager, Chicago Transit Authority :
"Our drivers are able to maintain a state of charge by heading to one of our facilities where they can do on route charging."
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Chicago - 2 March 2023
8. Various of electric No. 66 bus on its route
ANNOTATION: On the first of many routes that will be converted to battery power, the CTA built fast-charging sites on both ends to keep the buses going.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Chicago - 14 February 2023
++SOUNDBITE PARTIALLY OVERLAID++
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Don Hargrove, senior maintenance manager, Chicago Transit Authority :
"I think the benefit for the Chicago Transit Authority is to just provide cleaner service, to provide for our clients, again, as we continue to move into zero emissions to where it's just less of a strain on the economy and to move to where it's just a cleaner air and cleaner environment overall."
10. Various of electric bus as it is charged at Chicago bus garage
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Chicago - 2 March 2023
11. Wide of family walking away from bus as it charges at Navy Pier
ANNOTATION: The CTA started experimenting with electric buses in 2014. Other transit systems are also going electric to help cut pollution and fight climate change.
STORYLINE:
The No. 66 bus rattles just like a regular diesel bus on Chicago's west side, but no one seems to notice the high-pitched whine of the electric motor that makes it go.
That’s just what Chicago Transit Authority wants.
Buses that don’t pollute the air yet can run reliably — even when cold weather cuts into the battery range.
But to make electric buses work, the CTA has had to go to great lengths and expense.
It built fast-charging sites on both ends of the route to keep the buses going.
No. 66 is the first of many routes that will be converted to battery power as the CTA moves to all-electric by 2040.
Other U.S. transit systems are making similar moves.
Batteries are constantly monitored to make sure they don't get depleted, risking the bus getting stranded.
If they get below 50% charge, they're supposed to top them off at a charger.So far, so good.
"We have never ran out of charge while we've been out on a daily route,” says Don Hargrove, senior maintenance manager at the garage that's home to most of the authority's 23 electric buses.
AP Video shot by Teresa Crawford
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