Central Coast transit agencies will get more than $13.2 million in federal grants to upgrade public busses in Monterey, San Luis Obispo, and Santa Barbara Counties.
The Santa Barbara Metropolitan Transit District is getting the largest chunk of that money with a grant of more than $5.6 million.
The agency said Monday that it will use that money to replace 14 of its oldest busses with brand new versions that are more environmentally-friendly.
Steve Maas helped write up the proposal for the district and told KCBX they're currently looking into what type of new busses would best serve the community.
"We are not quiet certain yet if we'll be buying a mix of diesel and electric busses with this grant or if we'll be going all one way or the other," said Maas. "That's yet to be determined based upon our fleet need and the range electric busses can go and so on."
Maas said the busses being replaced were made in 1998 and each have more than 600,000 miles of use.
SLO RTA received four million dollars through this grant process and Monterey Salinas Transit will get nearly $3.7 million.
This is the first year for what is now an annual federal program that will remain in place through at least 2021.