“We’re very excited with the news,” said Jerry Estrada about the $5.6 million grant newly awarded to Santa Barbara’s Metropolitan Transit District (MTD) by the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT). “It’ll help us get the oldest buses off the road,” the MTD general manager said, explaining that the area bus line operator wants to retire 14 of its 85 diesel buses that date back to the 1990s. The grant enables MTD to order clean diesel or battery-electric vehicles, which should be delivered by around 2018. MTD moves more than 7 million passengers every year.
