The University of Iowa has received a $16.4 million federal grant to improve its Cambus system, a significant boost that will help the university meet its sustainability goals and increase the bus system’s efficiency.
The grant from the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) will help fund the purchase of six new battery-electric buses and provide updates to the Cambus Maintenance Facility, according to a release.
Cambus is a free campus bus service founded in 1972 by UI students with six leased buses. Today, Cambus is still largely student-run and operates with 37 buses on fixed-route, on-demand, and paratransit services.
Many people helped support UI’s Parking and Transportation efforts to secure the grant, said Debby Zumbach, associate vice president and director of the department — including community leaders, legislators, president Barbara Wilson and senior vice president Rod Lehnertz.
“This historic grant is an incredible step forward for Cambus,” Ms. Zumbach said. “Sustainability is important to us and to the university, and we are excited to be able to meet our goals by adding these six buses to our fleet.”
During the FTA’s annual grant cycle, more than $9 billion in funding was requested and nearly $1.5 billion was awarded to 117 projects. The UI was one of 62 recipients of the “low or no emissions” grant, which goes toward zero-emission and low-emission transit buses and the facilities that support them.
Six new battery-electric buses are set to replace the oldest diesel Cambus vehicles by 2026, the release said. Cambus will collaborate with the Center for Transportation and the Environment to deploy these buses and gather data to enhance their performance.
“Electric vehicles are the way the transit industry has been moving and investing in,” said Mia Brunelli, Cambus operations manager. “The technology has gotten to a place where it makes sense in our Cambus system, based on the routes we have, how long buses stay out on them, and how many miles we need our buses to travel. We know the university is committed to reducing greenhouse gases on campus, and these vehicles will contribute to that goal by reducing transportation emissions.”
In addition to the purchase of battery-electric buses, the grant will also help fund upgrades to the Cambus Maintenance Facility. The current facility has low ceilings and other structural barriers that will make accommodation for electric buses a challenge, which are taller than current buses and require new infrastructure to power them.
The project will add about 20,000 square feet adjacent to the north side of the current Cambus facility on Madison Street, and construction is expected to start in summer 2025 and last one year.
The updated space will house new Cambus maintenance bays, maintenance office and support spaces, and more training spaces. The project will also move Cambus employees working out of the West Campus Transportation Center to the Madison Street facility, which will increase efficiencies by having employees under one roof.
“The updated facility will create a lot of efficiencies in our scheduling, planning services, and our response time to service issues,” Ms. Brunelli said.
It will also enable Cambus to accommodate future developments, she added.
“Other types of fuels, such as hydrogen fuel, might come along in the future and might be good for Cambus to use,” she said. “We need a facility that’s flexible enough to accommodate those types of buses, and this project will allow us to have that space.”
While fleet services also will have maintenance and offices in the new facility, that portion of the project will not be funded through the federal grant. Cambus and fleet services already collaborate on maintenance, and that will only be improved at the new facility, she said.
“We’re very excited,” Ms. Brunelli said, of the future changes. “We were very focused in putting this grant application together to set Cambus up for many more years. Cambus marked 50 years in 2022, and this facility modernization and expansion and the use of alternative fuels will ensure continued success.”
