This is HEV rather than BEV-bus related, but may be of interest nevertheless. Via GCC:
AC Transit Board greenlights a $108M, 9.5-mile infrastructure project for first Bus Rapid Transit line; diesel-hybrid buses
http://www.greencarcongress.com/2016/04/20160402-actbrt.html
. . . Construction of the 150 block transit service (that spans 9.5 miles) is slated to begin in May 2016 with service expected to begin in November 2017. . . .
The BRT will operate inside a transit-only lane for most of the 9.5 mile route with stops at raised station platforms. The service will run on new 60-foot diesel-electric hybrid buses manufactured by New Flyer. Each bus is specially designed with five-doors to quicken the boarding process. . . .
This is being financed by a county 0.5 cent (on top of an existing 0.5 cent) transportation sales tax we passed last year, plus parcel taxes and federal money. The route includes all the usual BRT measures: dedicated lanes, raised platforms for straight-in boarding, short headways (5 minutes peak, 10 minutes off-peak), signal priority, wider stop spacing (every 1/3rd mile). There are a couple of other measures to reduce dwell time at stops:, interior bike racks, and "innovative wheelchair tie-down systems." Unstated in the article is whether they will use pre-boarding payment, as is typical of BRT - I assume so. [
Edit]: Found a press release which mentions ticket machines at the stations, so almost certainly yes.
Although the rest of the fleet is diesel (except for 12 fuel cell buses, one of which passed 20k hours of operation last August), It strikes me as slightly odd that AC Transit is going with diesel-electric hybrids. Maybe none of the BEV or FCEV buses were available with the necessary combination of range, performance, articulation (their current articulated buses are also made by New Flyer) and known cost of ownership, but this would seem a good route to go ZEV from the get-go. In any case, although it doesn't extend as far as me (I use BART trains instead, which run parallel to this to the west), it's good to see the Bay Area finally getting a real BRT line. Once in, it can eventually be turned into a light rail line if the traffic demands it and funds are available. The article says that a light rail line would have cost $70m/mile, versus $25m/mile for BRT.