Yesterday, the U.S. Department of Transportation announced over $2 billion in new grant funding for bus purchases and bus facility upgrades spread across 165 different U.S. public transportation providers.

“Delivering new-and-improved bus infrastructure is yet another example of how America is building again under President Trump,” said Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy. “Whether it’s to church, school, or work, more people travel by bus than any other form of public transportation. With these grants, thousands of new buses will hit the road and infrastructure will be upgraded—making public transit more efficient, affordable and safe for American families.”

The funding, provided by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021, is the fiscal 2025 funding for the program plus another $525 million taken from the fiscal 2026 advance appropriation, which became available on October 1. There are actually two programs here: the regular bus and bus facilities program, and what used to be a small set-aside of the main program just for low-emission and zero-emission buses (called the low-no program). But Division J of the IIJA added so much additional money to the low-no program that at present it receives 2.8 times as much funding as the regular program ($1.1 billion vs around $400 million).

While the total amount of bus funding being provided has not changed in the transition from the Biden Administration to the second Trump Administration, the emphasis of the low-no program has changed a great deal. Under President Biden there was a heavy emphasis on battery-electric buses and their charging infrastructure. For example, the fiscal 2023 grant list had no less than 35 battery-electric bus grants (plus quite a few fuel cell-electric grants as well).

The new grant list has, near as we can tell, zero battery-electric bus grants. (At least, the word “battery” does not appear in any project description, and the word “electric” only occurs as part of the phrase “diesel-electric hybrid.”) And no fuel cell bus grants, either. There are several diesel-electric hybrid bus grants, and a bunch of compressed natural gas (CNG) grants, both of which have lower emissions than traditional diesel buses, but the current Administration does seem to be abandoning the “no” end of the low-no emission spectrum.

The largest grants in this go-round are:

• $121.1 million for the Chicago Transit Authority to replace up to 150 diesel buses with diesel-electric hybrids.
• $100.7 million for Harris County, Texas to purchase CNG buses and build accompanying facilities.
• $78.6 million for the Boston-area MBTA to procure enhanced electric hybrid buses.
• $64.0 million for the Livermore Amador Valley Transit Authority to build facilities and buy new diesel-electric hybrid buses.
• $50.9 million to Detroit to replace diesel buses with hybrids.
• $50.3 million for the DC-area WMATA to replace diesel buses with hybrids.

(Those were all low-no grants, as were all grants this go-round exceeding $36 million in size.)