The shuttle fleet at Zion National Park is now the first bus fleet in a national park and among the first in the United States to run entirely on electricity.
Zion National Park, one of the ‘mighty five’ national parks in the area that showcases Utah’s natural splendor, is located in Southern Utah and is well-known for its vibrant canyons and arches.
The park, which is mostly centered around a small canyon, began to have traffic problems in the 1990s as a result of an increase in visitors. Due to this, the park established a shuttle system to transport tourists through the canyon and back to the town of Springdale, which is located just outside the park, and closed off the majority of its roads to private vehicles.
When those buses were put into operation in 2000, they lessened traffic-related noise and pollution, which are a constant nuisance in stunning natural settings and contributed to the park’s revitalization.
Nevertheless, because those buses ran on propane, they continued to be noisy and their use of fossil fuels worsens the destruction of natural areas.
Rather than using propane like its previous fleet, Zion has now changed all of its buses to electric ones, making it the first National Park fleet to do so.
Thirty all-electric buses have replaced the fleet’s prior forty-nine propane buses. The new buses include improved disability accommodations, air conditioning, and are quieter and more roomy than the old ones.
The best part is that, because they are more effective, they also lessen the impact of climate change, which is causing Zion’s summer temperatures to rise (despite the fact that people still seem determined to contaminate our one and only home).
Although the fleet’s complete overhaul was just revealed last week, the buses are currently in use and transporting visitors. They transported 97,000 riders across the park over Labor Day weekend, avoiding a great deal of necessary car journeys, emissions, and noise. According to Zion, each shuttle eliminates 29 automobiles from the roadways.
Through a grant program for nationally significant federal lands, the US Department of Transportation provided the majority of the funding for the buses.
The National Park Service is striving to convert the fleets of other major parks, such as Grand Canyon, Acadia, Yosemite, Bryce Canyon, and Harpers Ferry, to all-electric vehicles, even though this is the first National Park fleet to do so. The Biden-Harris administration is committed to switching the whole government fleet to electric cars, which includes all of this.
Additionally, Zion hopes that it may act as a model for other bus fleets, private or public, and demonstrate the effectiveness of an all-electric bus fleet in lowering noise and air pollution. This is the nation’s most advanced fleet of electric buses. It will establish a benchmark for other national parks.
