Charging Forward at Main Street Station: Electrifying the Future of Public Transit

Right in the heart of downtown Boise you will find a high-energy transit center, Main Street Station — the hub for the Boise metro regional transit system and a takeoff point for thousands of bus riders accessing communities from Boise to Caldwell. It’s also the site of an electrifying infrastructure project that’s shaping the future of public transit in our region. A joint effort of VRT, local leaders, and experts around the country, this years-long undertaking took shape in a working underground bus station, and the impact is almost ready to hit the streets.

“We’ve had Main Street Station for about a decade, and this upgrade makes it ready to better serve passengers for decades to come. The electric buses are clean and quiet, perfect for this underground setting. With the new chargers, buses can spend a full day on route, making operations less complicated. It also means we can choose the best bus individual routes and adds resiliency to our system if our charging goes down at our Ada County depot.”

– Elaine Clegg, VRT Chief Executive Officer

Since opening in 2016, Main Street Station has been the underground epicenter of public transit in downtown Boise, serving most local routes from an accessible, welcoming, and efficient hub that featured an indoor waiting area, public restrooms, a customer service desk, public art, and a bicycle locker. Since then, Main Street Station has continued to evolve as VRT’s flagship transit center and community asset.

Progress and Partnerships

The need for charging downtown was identified in 2021, after VRT got rolling with 12 battery-electric buses and a depot charging facility at the Ada County Operations and Maintenance facility, located near the Boise Airport. It quickly became clear that redundancy, resilience, and cleaner options to keep passengers moving meant on-route charging at MSS would be critical.

In 2023, VRT determined that to ensure a successful strategy they would need specialized partners for each phase of the project, first partnering with the Center for Transportation and the Environment (CTE), who used performance data from VRT buses to forecast and model the energy load and project the on-route charging needs.

“CTE is proud to support Valley Regional Transit as they continue to grow their battery-electric bus fleet and charging infrastructure. This project represents a meaningful step toward cleaner air, quieter streets, and more reliable service for VRT riders. It also reflects the kind of local leadership and long-term planning that helps communities grow sustainably. We’re grateful for VRT’s partnership and look forward to continuing to provide the technical insight and performance data that will help guide this transition and deliver value for riders, staff, and the region.”

– Cynthia Gibson, Lead Managing Consultant at CTE

VRT then engaged a team of other experts. Jacobs, a leading engineering firm, developed the project plan and design using the technical insight from CTE to implement the innovative technology we now see at MSS: four Heliox chargers, and four inverted pantograph charging units. As the lead project manager, Jacobs coordinated the project with a variety of expert teams.

RSCI provided the electrical infrastructure knowledge to build a new trench below the floor of the underground station to run electricity through the site to the new specialized equipment, which included VRT’s new transformer and switchgear. Phoenix Fire oversaw fire suppression systems to increase water volumes and add further sprinkler locations around the bus bay.

VRT needed to find a bus manufacturer that had the infrastructure to provide the on-route charging capabilities determined by CTE. VRT partnered with GILLIG, a family-owned American bus manufacturer, to purchase seven (7) battery electric buses. As of today, VRT operates 13 GILLIG battery electric buses with on-route capability. With both overhead and depot charging in place, these new GILLIG buses can charge throughout the day, while cutting down on noise and emissions wherever they go.

Charging Ahead

It took city, regional, and federal support to make a visionary but technical project like this a reality. From the City of Boise and other tenants at Main Street to the Federal Transit Administration and Idaho’s congressional delegation, the multi-pronged effort shows what happens when purpose and planning come together to create a clean, connected future.

“We’ve had critical help from our delegation and incredible support from our partners, including the City of Boise and others,” Clegg said. “Without all of that, this wouldn’t happen.”

VRT staff have been training to align buses with chargers and welcoming the new system to Main Street Station; they also worked with businesses and a local artist to revitalize the inside of the facility with refinished floors, fresh paint, and new art.

“VRT staff have worked awfully hard to get to this point — that makes it so fun to see it all come together,” Clegg said.

This is the collective power behind the bus. A group project for the public good that will change people’s overall experience of Boise for the long run. And it offers a guide map to other transit systems looking to make electricity happen in their city, too.

Staff will be conducting final tests on the charging system until incorporating them into active service this June.