Pace Suburban Bus replaces aging fleet with hybrids on the road to Project Zero
Key Highlights
- Pace Suburban Bus is replacing aging vehicles with hybrid-electric buses now, rather than waiting for battery-electric infrastructure and vehicle supply to fully catch up to its 2040 zero-emission target.
- The agency's phased approach—hybrids first, full electrification tied to specific garage conversions like North Division in Waukegan—offers a sequencing model for agencies earlier in their own zero-emission planning.
- Project Zero's roughly $2.5 billion price tag is being pieced together from a mix of state, federal, and congressional funding sources, underscoring how incremental—and patchwork—the path to a fully zero-emission fleet can be even for a well-resourced agency.
Pace Suburban Bus (Pace) isn't waiting for a full fleet of battery-electric buses (BEB) to be available, or for every charging post to go into the ground before embarking on its journey to decarbonize its fleet. Its zero-emission goals are set—laid out in the agency’s Project Zero plan—but the agency is already replacing its oldest vehicles with hybrid buses to bank emissions savings sooner.
Pace launched its zero-emission goals in September 2021, committing to transitioning to a completely zero-emission fleet by 2040. This plan also includes upgrading its North Division in Waukegan, Ill., into a zero-emission facility by 2029. After setting its intentions, the agency began taking steps to procure its future fleet.
“Pace understands that the transition to a fully electrified fleet is a marathon and not a sprint,” said Pace Executive Director Melinda Metzger in an exclusive statement to Mass Transit magazine. “Our new hybrid buses are a critical step in this journey by immediately delivering a quieter and more comfortable ride for our passengers and meaningful environmental benefits for our region. It’s a practical step that continues our momentum toward a modern and sustainable transit system and helps us address manufacturing and industry challenges at the same time.”
How Pace is bridging the gap as it pilots fully electric buses
Pace’s first electric bus went into service in January 2024 on Route 381, providing a cleaner transit option in the region’s southwest suburbs—though this procurement stood more as a proof-of-concept for the agency while it built out the required infrastructure needed to support a full fleet.
However, Pace needed to bridge a gap it was facing as it made this transition—needing new vehicles now. Enter hybrid technology, which the agency is now using as a stopgap emission reduction measure. Pace now has 47 hybrid buses in its fleet after a delivery of 24 new buses to its Will County fleet earlier this year. As for why the agency chose to proceed with hybrid buses at this moment when its zero-emission commitment was only 14 years off, Pace Chief Communication Officer Maggie Daly Skogsbakken says it came down to multiple elements of timing.
“It’s a variety of reasons. The main one is we need the infrastructure for a fully electric fleet, and we need the vehicles,” Daly Skogsbakken said. “There are not a lot of battery-electric bus producers out there right now and a lot of people want electric buses.”
Facing limitations on the production side and in how fast infrastructure could be stood up, the agency saw hybrid buses as a way to begin cutting emissions and solve for aging buses that were already due for replacement. The agency says that the hybrid technology is expected to reduce fuel costs by approximately 20% annually compared with traditional diesel buses, supporting Pace’s ongoing focus on operational efficiency, fiscal responsibility and environmental stewardship.
“Hybrid buses move our Project Zero vision forward by providing cleaner, quieter and more efficient transportation today while creating a practical pathway toward a fully electrified fleet,” Metzger said in the statement. “Our approach allows us to address industry challenges head on and continue our progress toward an all-electric future.”
Daly Skogsbakken notes, however, that that lead time has given the agency breathing room to achieve its goals.
“It’s not as fast as we want it to be, but it is giving us time to secure all of the funding we’re going to need to fully transition the fleet,” Daly Skogsbakken said.
While the agency already has an established compressed natural gas division, the reduced production of vehicles of that propulsion type led the agency to select battery-electric hybrid buses for this gap. Additionally, while the agency is also working on hydrogen propulsion options, it’s just started to pilot those options in 2025, though that comes with similar infrastructure and procurement challenges that electric buses have.
Building the infrastructure to power it all
To support the impending fully electric fleet, Pace has begun upgrading its facilities. It broke ground on the North Division garage project in Waukegan in early 2025—what will be the agency’s first facility purpose-built for handling a fully battery-electric fleet. Pace launched the first phase of the renovation at the end of 2025, hosting 12 charging stations—10 pedestal chargers and two pantograph chargers.
It’s also upgrading its River Division in Elgin, Ill., which is projected to host 20 BEBs and up to 35 electric paratransit vehicles. This location is also where the agency is piloting hydrogen propulsion technology.
As for how it decided to start with these facilities, Daly Skogsbakken explains that the agency considered a range of factors before making its initial decisions.
“We look[ed] at the overall state-of-good-repair schedule—what divisions had repairs, renovations or upgrades coming soon—that’s an initial consideration,” Daly Skogsbakken said. “Then, we consider the length of the route, so that we’re testing it on a little bit of a shorter route. We have buses out all day, we don’t want to test the first electric [buses] on those routes.”
Daly Skogsbakken continued, explaining that the agency is trialing the electric buses on Route 395—one of the agency’s high-frequency routes—so that if a bus isn’t functioning properly or experiences a significant delay, there’s enough frequency to make up for a missing bus.
“We chose Waukegan first because North Division needed a renovation. It had a good variety of routes that we can test these vehicles on as we get more of them,” Daly Skogsbakken said.
The agency also made the choice to start with the North Division because of the “disinvestment” the area has experienced. It’s seeking to reduce emissions in an area that’s long delt with industrial pollution while also working to clear a transit desert.
While Pace is interested in further expansion to more facilities, it’s facing the need for more capital funding and the general challenges that come with making such an upgrade, like remediation, right-sizing the fire suppression system for the use case and ensuring the general safety of its staff when introducing high-powered, alternating current technology such as BEBs and their chargers.
It’s also facing an industry-wide problem: vendor capacity. As so many agencies make similar, or even nearer-term goals, like Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority that has a zero-emissions target of 2030, procurement doesn’t just come down to what an agency has already planned for itself or what it can afford at that moment. It must also contend with the timelines and contracts of others.
“It really is like a game of Tetris,” Daly Skogsbakken said.
As part of that breadth of planning, the agency isn’t necessarily locking onto one exact solution and is keeping an open mind as the zero-emission goal is still north of a decade away.
“What if other fuel sources become available? Become cheaper? Become more safe? All of those things have to be considered,” Daly Skogsbakken said. “And that's what's really interesting about this time in project management. Generally, you have to be so flexible that you’re building plan A, plan B, plan C, and that's what you have to do to be a responsible public entity—and that's what we're doing.”
Funding the upgrades both short- and long-term
To support this transition, Pace has sought funding from multiple sources, including grants, federal funding, state funding and from any other sources it’s able to tap.
“We actively pursue grants. We actively lobby for funding from the federal government. We have a lot of legislators who want to see this happen and see the big picture,” Daly Skogsbakken said. “They're working to get us the funding that we need to do this. Our state is working to get us the funding that we need for this.”
Daly Skogsbakken noted the importance of building trust with the federal and state funding providers and elected officials, citing that good stewardship of funds creates a bit of a cycle that allows for more funding to flow down the line.
“As we get this funding, managing it responsibly and transparently is really important to maintaining and building more trust to get that,” Daly Skogsbakken said. “We understand that a lot of this funding might be opportunistic, and that really relies on the relationship building aspect and involvement in groups like [the Illinois Association for Clean Transportation]… Being partners with these groups to learn about opportunities for funding and new technology is really important. We can't be the subject matter experts on every little thing, so we need those relationships so people can help us identify grants, work with legislators to secure funding and to look at this technology that might save us some money.”
Funding the North Division upgrades is a combination of Rebuild Illinois and federal grants, with $12.5 million in Rebuild Illinois funding also supporting high voltage electrical equipment, a stormwater detention system and parking lot reconstruction. Further, a Community Project Funding grant was secured by Rep. Brad Schneider (D-IL-10) in fiscal year 2023 appropriations to fund two pilot electric buses for the North Division.
A new funding mechanism has also been created for the region to, in part, support these electrification endeavors in the form of the Northern Illinois Transit Authority Act (NITA)—a bill intended to modernize the governance of transit in the region, avoid service cuts and invest in the transit systems throughout the region. The bill created $1.5 billion in annual funding, with over $800 million of that coming from fuel sales tax revenue. So far, this funding stream has allowed Pace to add 353 trips systemwide, funded through long-term dollars it expects from NITA and delivered on the new hybrid buses it has already procured.
The agency expects its current Project Zero plans to require $2.5 billion in funding, which covers both vehicle procurements and facility upgrades.
New buses bring new technology, new changes and a fortified strategy
The new stock that’s hitting streets isn’t just bringing a new propulsion technology to riders; it’s also bringing new amenities like Wi-Fi and points to charge devices. This move was made not only as a measure to come into parity with other transit agencies and modes, like that of Santa Maria Regional Transit, which made similar upgrades during its zero-emission transition, but also to lean into a desire the agency had discovered during focus groups it conducted before the pandemic—riding the bus to get time back to be productive.
Daly Skogsbakken also shares that, while there was a near-agency-wide retraining, Pace was “very lucky” to have dedicated staff to manage the rollout. Further, the agency hasn’t just trained operators and maintenance staff and moved on, instead working through its communications and community relations departments to ensure it can effectively communicate the value of the new hybrid technology. Finally, operators aren’t just trained on the new features or how to best maximize the range or regenerative braking, but are trained in the full scope of the vehicles so they can confidently speak with riders and the public about them when questions arise.
As to how it’s making this all work with so many unknowns at its feet, Daly Skogsbakken shared what’s worked for Pace so other agencies who may not be as far along can learn from its experience.
“Some of the biggest advice I could give right now is utilize your networks, talk to people, learn about this and keep learning because it's going to change,” Daly Skogsbakken said. “At this point, almost every month, I feel like there's something new, right? So, it's that commitment to being open and flexible and learning new things. That's how you're going to get to the finish line on projects like this.”
About the Author
Noah Kolenda
Associate Editor
Noah Kolenda is a recent graduate from the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism with a master’s degree in health and science reporting. Kolenda also specialized in data journalism, harnessing the power of Open Data projects to cover green transportation in major U.S. cities. Currently, he is an associate editor for Mass Transit magazine, where he aims to fuse his skills in data reporting with his experience covering national policymaking and political money to deliver engaging, future-focused transit content.
Prior to his position with Mass Transit, Kolenda interned with multiple Washington, D.C.-based publications, where he delivered data-driven reporting on once-in-a-generation political moments, runaway corporate lobbying spending and unnoticed election records.