Riverside California hydrogen buses
Riverside California hydrogen buses are what a reader searching for Riverside Transit Agency electric buses will actually find on the road, not the battery electric buses most people picture. A hydrogen fuel cell electric bus makes its own electricity onboard by combining hydrogen gas with oxygen rather than storing power in a large rechargeable battery, and it counts as a zero emission bus either way. The board of Riverside Transit Agency picked this technology in 2020 after research into the size and hilly terrain of its roughly 2,500 square mile service area in Riverside County, California. The choice answers a California rule called Innovative Clean Transit, adopted in 2018, that requires every public transit agency in the state to reach a 100% zero emission bus fleet by 2040. The board approved a contract with New Flyer of America on February 27, 2025 for the first 5 hydrogen fuel cell buses, arriving by spring 2026 and entering service in fiscal year 2027.
A fleet still running on fossil fuel
None of the 279 buses Riverside Transit Agency ran in active service as of March 31, 2026 burn zero emission fuel yet, its own board approved Short Range Transit Plan states. Of those, 120 are the 40 foot buses that make up its directly operated fixed route service, and they run on compressed natural gas, a fuel squeezed into onboard tanks rather than diesel or hydrogen. The rest of the fleet covers shorter fixed routes and paratransit service under contract, also running on compressed natural gas or gasoline. Every 1 of the first hydrogen buses still has to arrive before that count changes.
None of these 279 buses ran on zero emission power as of March 31, 2026, the date of this count. The first 5 hydrogen fuel cell buses arrive after this count, in 2026.
Show the numbers
| 40 foot fixed route buses, compressed natural gas | 120 |
| 32 foot fixed route buses, compressed natural gas | 63 |
| Dial A Ride buses, gasoline | 73 |
| Dial A Ride vans, gasoline | 15 |
| GoMicro on demand buses, gasoline | 8 |
Funding secured, then funding cancelled
The first 5 hydrogen buses are paid for. A federal Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality grant provided 7,000,000 dollars and the state SB125 program added 4,430,000 dollars, for a combined 11,430,000 dollars, the board approved capital budget states. A separate federal funding stream was not so lucky. The agency was counting on 21,600,000 dollars in hydrogen funding through a multi agency partnership called ARCHES, and the Department of Energy cancelled it on October 1, 2025. The agency appealed on October 11, 2025 and had not received a replacement as of its most recent budget. That cancelled funding surfaces only by reading the board approved capital budget line by line, rather than the announcement the agency itself made about its grants, which named only the 2 grants that came through.
The first 2 bars funded the first 5 hydrogen buses of the agency and were both received. The third bar was promised through a separate federal hydrogen partnership called ARCHES and was cancelled by the Department of Energy on October 1, 2025, before the agency received any of it.
Show the numbers
| Federal air quality grant | 7,000,000 |
| State SB125 program | 4,430,000 |
| Federal ARCHES cancelled | 21,600,000 |
What the agency officials say
Jim Steiner, the board chair of Riverside Transit Agency and a City of Corona councilmember, said bringing the first hydrogen buses to the street this year represents a major investment in the future of public transportation for the region, in a statement confirmed word for word in 2 separate agency documents. Chief Executive Officer Kristin Warsinski credited 2 federal and state grants received in early 2026 for making that first order possible.
We are grateful to receive this essential funding and for the continued support extended to us at the national level.
Kristin Warsinski, Chief Executive Officer, Riverside Transit Agency. Source 3.
The newest planning document from the agency, approved in May 2026, says an updated rollout plan is coming to the board in summer 2026, since the real first order is arriving 2 years later than the agency planned back in 2020.