Usually, memories of riding a school bus brings to mind certain sensory details — rattling machinery, sudden stops and hazy gray smoke wafting out of the tailpipe.
However, for riders of the district’s new all-electric Blue Bird school bus, those experiences are a thing of the past.
On Tuesday, the Bartholomew Consolidated School Corp. showcased the new bus, which started running routes to Columbus East High School and Richards Elementary on Oct. 12.
When the vehicle pulled up in front of the elementary school for Tuesday’s media event, there was hardly a sound except for a gentle hum from the bus and the soft splash of its tires gliding through puddles.
Richards Elementary students who ride on the bus said that it’s noticeably more smooth and quiet than what they’re used to.
“It feels good,” said fourth-grader Khloe Blackwell. “I like it a lot. Because everybody on our bus is like, ‘I want to keep this! I want to keep the bus! I want to keep it!’”
The bus driver, Shannon Stuart, also appreciates the change.
“I love it,” she said. “I can hear the students. I can hear other things, like sirens, you know. And I feel like it’s a lot safer, as far as the noise is concerned.”
Brett Boezeman, director of operations at BCSC, called the bus “the second electric school bus in the state” and “the first in the region.”
The total cost of the bus is around $423,000, he said. Of this cost, $315,000 came from a grant from the Indiana Volkswagen Environmental Mitigation Trust Fund Committee. Monroe, Carroll and Hamilton counties also received funding to purchase one all-electric bus, according to a release from the Indiana Department of Environmental Management.
Part of the cost of the new bus was covered by Cummins, Boezeman said, and BCSC covered the difference, which was about $17,000. He added that the bus’s entire powertrain and the majority of its mechanical parts come from Cummins.
For more on this story, see Thursday’s Republic.
