ST. GEORGE, Utah (ABC4) — Zion National Park will soon be the first of the U.S.’s national parks to have a fully electric fleet after adding five new 40-foot electric shuttles to their operations.
And according to park officials, not only are the new shuttles greener, but they hold more passengers.
“We are really excited that one of the benefits we are going to see from this new fleet is that we can accommodate more riders per unit,” said Zion Public Afffairs Specialist Jonathan Shafer. “On these 40-foot units, like the one you can see behind me, they have 34 seats. Our old fleet had 31 seats on the single units. They can also accommodate more people standing.”
Shafer said the new shuttles are in service in the town of Springdale, replacing units that were over 20 years old. The new shuttles are quieter and have zero tailpipe emissions.
Very early preliminary data from the new shuttles show they use 3% of their battery per hour with a recharge time of five hours. Shafer said Zion should also be adding new 60-foot units to their service route in Zion Canyon.
