Feds OK $1.4M for electric bus buy for rural Oconee

U-S tax dollars for electric-powered buses will help deliver students to the Oconee County satellite campus of Tri-County Technical College. But the timetable is such that the pair of new electric buses likely won’t arrive by the August date, when the Tech campus will open for students. Ed Halbig, Seneca’s bus man, confirmed yesterday that South Carolina DOT will amend its transportation improvement program to add $1.4 million in funds from the Federal Transit Administration’s Section 5339 competitive grant program to add two new low emission electric buses to the city’s rural capital project. That project, Halbig explains, will run bus service to the Tech campus inside the county’s Information and Technology Park on highway 11. Until April 12, SC DOT accepts public comment on the grant allocation.