The SFMTA is an industry leader in implementing clean transit and shares the City’s and the State’s vision to moderate the impacts of climate change. Muni’s transition to zero-emission vehicles will allow SFMTA to dramatically reduce harmful emissions in communities that have long faced the burden of pollution from fossil fuel-powered vehicles.
Consistent with San Francisco’s Climate Action Plan and statewide requirements, SFMTA began the Battery Electric Bus (BEB) program, which started with testing in revenue service in 2022.
Significant investment is needed to evolve the agency’s 100+ year old facilities in order to operate BEBs. This transition will be in several phases.
The Kirkland Bus Yard must undergo renovation in the next three to four years in order to stay on track to meet our 100 percent zero-emission goal. The first of our electric fleet will be arriving in 2027 and full electrification of the bus fleet is to be completed by 2040.
Kirkland Bus Yard is in a busy urban area on the north waterfront near Fisherman’s Wharf and Pier 39, some of the city’s prime recreation and tourist destinations. The facility houses an aging diesel-hybrid fleet, which will be the first fleet scheduled to be entirely replaced with zero-emission vehicles. The transition to battery electric buses will eliminate the impacts of pollution and engine noise from the facility for neighboring residents and visitors.
At over 70-years-old, the Kirkland Bus Yard has become physically and functionally obsolete. The facility is overcrowded, with only three maintenance bays, an outdoor bus wash, and limited bus parking in its current configuration. The electrification is part of a larger process to upgrade our facilities, improve infrastructure and streamline our operations.
Kirkland Yard’s location has the advantage of being centrally located for key bus routes serving a diverse group of neighborhoods all over the city, but also the disadvantage of limited space. This makes an efficient facility design for a battery electric fleet all the more important. Currently, Kirkland is set up to maintain diesel buses only. In order to support electric vehicles, the Kirkland facility will require significant renovations to add charging infrastructure as well as an electrical service upgrade from PG&E - the utility agency.
The Kirkland Yard Electrification Project is part of the SFMTA’s Building Progress Program,a $2.3 billion, multi-year effort to repair, renovate, and modernize the SFMTA’s aging facilities. Investments are needed to keep the City moving and transition to a battery-electric bus fleet. We have done bus fleet modeling and planning work as well as needs assessments to determine which infrastructure will be critical to the conversion of the facility in order to support 91 battery-electric buses and keep the SFMTA zero-emission vehicle plan on track for the future.
