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Government

Metro Link Will Buy More Electric Buses

Metro Link

With help from the state, Metro Link will buy more electric buses. On Tuesday the governor and Illinois DOT announced grants for downstate transit providers totalling more than $113 million dollars.

Manager of Administration, Jennifer Hirsch, says Metro Link will receive 6 million dollars and buy 6 new electric buses. Currently the agency has 17 electric buses, or about one-third of its fleet. The rest run on compressed natural gas.

"Well it is all about clean, burning fuel and making sure our community is moving in the right path toward sustainability and this is just one way we can do our part in creating that sustainable transit system."

She says Metro Link bought its first CNG powered bus in 2002 and in 2018 was one of the first transit agencies in the midwest to buy an electric bus.

Everyday 5 to 6,000 people ride Metro Link buses in the Illinois Quad Cities.

Government
A native of Detroit, Herb Trix began his radio career as a country-western disc jockey in Roswell, New Mexico (“KRSY, your superkicker in the Pecos Valley”), in 1978. After a stint at an oldies station in Topeka, Kansas (imagine getting paid to play “Louie Louie” and “Great Balls of Fire”), he wormed his way into news, first in Topeka, and then in Freeport Illinois.