Electric Buses: Troy Becomes 1st Public School District In Illinois

JOLIET, IL —In the next two or three weeks, the Troy Community Consolidated School District 30-C will have the distinction of becoming the first public school district in Illinois to begin using a Lion Electric battery charged school bus.

Lion Electric is the Canada-based electric manufacturing company that chose Joliet for its first electric bus manufacturing plant in the United States. The assembly line production is now underway in Joliet. This particular bus for Troy, however, was built in Canada by Lion.

"And we are the first in the state of Illinois, first school district, to have Lion deliver an electric bus," Troy School Board President Mark Griglione told Joliet Patch last week.

"What we're doing is starting out slow. I like to call it, we're crawling before we're walking, and we're buying a large bus and a small bus. And we're at the forefront working with ComEd, and they were very, very accommodating getting us all set up with all the charging facilities on campus."

Why are Troy Schools becoming the first district in the Joliet area to aggressively pursue converting its diesel fueled bus fleet into electric buses?

"We just want to be part of what's going on in the United States and the world," Griglione told Patch. "We want to be energy efficient and when we put solar paneling on all the buildings, we feel this is a step in the right direction.

"We have 65 buses, we're starting with two, and we're thrilled to do that. And over a 10-year period, we're going to see how many we can add to that number."

According to Troy 30-C, electric infrastructure at Troy was also extended to 10 spaces in the William B. Orenic Intermediate School parking lot, to be used for private vehicles to recharge as drivers work or visit the school and its facilities.

Joliet Patch asked the school board president whether Troy would have its entire 65 vehicle fleet of school buses all electric in five or 10 years.

"Probably not 65,"Griglione answered. "But if things around the world accelerate, and then we would accelerate our program and try to do 65. But I think even if we did half (32 or 33) we would be probably heading in the right direction with all the stuff going on with trying to save energy."

Troy administrators told Patch that the new Lion Electric bus should be picking up children for class in the morning by the middle of November.

"We're charging and ready to go," Griglione said.

Related Patch story:

Lion Electric Promises 1,418 Jobs: Joliet Offers Tax Abatement