The City of Regina is set to receive funding from the federal government to help electrify its fleet of buses.

The City will receive $26.1 million from the federal government’s zero-emission transit fund to help upgrade the infrastructure at the City’s transit fleet maintenance facility on Winnipeg Street to accommodate electric buses.

The funding will also help purchase 26 electric buses from 2024 to 2026.

Mayor Sandra Masters welcomes the funding.

“Anytime you are looking to invest in something that over the course of a lifetime of assets is going to save massive amounts of money in fuel costs into the future to be able to cover 50 per cent of that cost into any project is enormously successful.”

Replacing diesel-fuelled buses in the City is a part of Regina’s Transit Master Plan.

Under the plan, the City will only purchase battery-powered buses starting in 2024. That plan will allow the City to slowly replace all its diesel-fuelled buses with electric buses by 2040.

Upgrading the facility’s infrastructure is expected from 2023 to 2025, with the City’s first electric buses set to arrive in 2025.