RICHMOND, Va. – GRTC unveiled brand-new electric vehicle charging stations Tuesday morning, part of an effort to help more people while helping the environment.
Established in partnership with Dominion Energy, the charging stations will support five of the 17 vans used in GRTC’s LINK Microtransit program, which offers free rides to residents in dedicated zones.
“Think Uber, Lyft, but a public transportation version of it,” said Adrienne Torres with GRTC. “It’s on demand. So if you call in, or if you use our app – it’s app-based, we try to push toward that – a vehicle will arrive within 20 minutes.
Torres said they previously had only one charging station, but through Dominion’s Fleet Charging infrastructure program, they now have five.
“Having these vehicles electric, as well as the gas, allows us to be able to operate in these particular zones [which] did not have service at all before,” Torres said.
The new chargers can fully charge a vehicle from 50% in two to three hours, a vast improvement from the previous six to eight hours.
GRTC hopes that by having more efficient charging stations, they can keep fares free and continue to increase the counties and people the LINK program serves.
“The quicker that it can be charges, then the more it can be in service, and the service can be more reliable,” Torres said. “Starting off with the vans as our first effort, and we will continue to explore [if it is] something that we move into for our buses.”
With all five chargers up and running, all of the fleet is on the road. To learn more about the LINK program and how to request a ride, visit GRTC’s website here.
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