Students in Providence will soon be taking electric buses to, from school

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WLNE) — The Providence Public School District announced Tuesday that hundreds of students will soon be riding electric school buses to and from their schools.

According to PPSD, First Student is deploying four electric school buses to better serve the district, its families and the community.

The buses are a first for the district and First Student’s first electric school busses in Rhode Island.

Funding from the American Rescue Plan’s Electric School Bus Rebates program covered the cost of the electric buses and aims to replace existing diesel busses with zero-emission busses. A grant from Rhode Island Energy helped fund the bus chargers and charging stations.

According to PPSD, replacing one diesel school bus with an electric model can reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 54,000lbs each year, which is equivalent to 3.75lbs of carbon.

An official launch event for the buses is scheduled to be held on Monday, Nov. 27.