Outlook
Municipal Service Committee Meeting Agenda Comment
From Robert Nowicki
Date Tue 4/28/2026 3:23 PM
To cityclerk <[email protected]>
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Board,
I just read through the agenda for tonight's meeting, and I see that the Hydrogen Bus purchase and Infrastructure is the only topic. I believe this was kicked back from a recent city council meeting where much public comment was received concerning the contract award.
My overall impression of the agenda material is that the city seems to be stating that there is no viable solution other than the FCEB purchase, otherwise we would lose out on some portion of the granted funds. While this may be true, a possible worse outcome would be purchasing fuel cell busses that turn out to be incapable of running for the desired period, and needing to be replaced. Then the city would be back to square one.
There isn't any background material concerning the actual bus provider whose bus only manages 80 miles of range. With the subsequent argument being made that, because of that, twice as many busses of the battery only variety would be required. Multiple other transit operators have tried running hydrogen busses and have given up for technical reasons. See the following link (one of many with similar stories):
https://app.croneri.co.uk/feature-articles/hydrogen-fuel-source I would also point you to the city of Santa Monica, where they are using their grant funding to purchase 73 battery electric busses:
https://www.santamonica.gov/press/2024/10/24/sustainable-connected-big-blue-bus-awarded- 53-3-million-to-accelerate-fleet-electrification-service-enhancements-and-workforce- development
https://www.santamonica.gov/press/2026/04/09/unprecedented-56-million-groundbreaking; investment-brings-clean-transportation-to-santa-monica
Have you coordinated with the city of Santa Monica to see how it is that they are able to deploy only battery powered busses versus fuel cell busses? The second article mentions "overhead gantry charging", which is typically used when a route is longer than a single charge can handle. These are often positioned at the "end of line" station where the busses can idle and charge for a short period, then do a return run on the same route. This exact charging method is going to be used on the under construction Burbank to Pasadena BRT system, with end of line charging being constructed on Hill street by the PCC campus. Per a recent inquiry to nohopasbri;@metro.net: The project will be implementing bus charging infrastructure along Hill y4vr to accommodate Metro's zero-emission buses along the route.
The agenda doesn't provide details of whether the routes were analyzed to understand whether the shorter routes could be electrified first, with longer routes coming later. Also, as you know, battery technology is advancing very rapidly, so decisions made today about what is feasible could end up being overcome by events very shortly.
A recent letter I wrote to the city council brought up the city installed DC fast chargers at the Arroyo charging plaza, now sitting abandoned for several years, about to be replaced. I'm sincerely hoping that the city doesn't make the same mistake by purchasing hydrogen fuel cell busses.
Robert Nowicki