After months of review, Edgartown’s VTA Church street committee gave a strong endorsement to a controversial plan to install three electric bus induction chargers at the downtown bus terminal.
Concerned about crowding on buses, Vineyard Transit Authority drivers presented the VTA advisory board with a petition last week asking for better safety protocols.
A traffic study on the Vineyard Transit Authority’s plan to use the Church Street transit hub in Edgartown as a charging station for electric buses found that the new station would not increase congestion at the site.
Both riders and drivers aboard Vineyard Transit Authority buses in Tisbury will be required to wear face coverings, following a vote by the town board of health Tuesday.
Six regularly scheduled ferry runs have been cut effective Sunday, as traffic to the Island begins to decline. Other transit agencies are taking steps to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
Edgartown selectmen voted Tuesday to refer the Vineyard Transit Authority’s redesigned bus terminal at Church street to the Martha’s Vineyard Commission.
A settlement between the federal government and Volkswagen will send $1 million in grants to the Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School and the Steamship Authority to buy electric buses.
Part of $7.5 million in grants announced by the Baker administration just before Christmas, the two grants will provide $500,000 for the SSA to build a charging station and buy two electric shuttle buses servicing their Falmouth route. The high school grant of $500,000 will be used to buy two electric school buses.