Tucson bus stops will soon be cooler and more accessible—and taxpayers will save money

Eighty new bus shelters along major heat corridors in Tucson will be installed to help keep waiting passengers cool.

Every single city bus stop in Tucson will soon see improvements, thanks to an $11.38 million grant that’ll fund the enhancements without the need for local tax dollars to do the work.

Here’s how the money will be spent:

• New, accessible signage
• New bus shelters
• New call boxes
• New information kiosks
• New bus lifts

“All 2,200 bus stops will be getting new, accessible signage, so every bus stop in our system will be improved,” said Davita Mueller, director of service, planning, and development at Sun Tran.

Eighty new bus shelters along major heat corridors will also be installed to help keep waiting passengers cool, and all stops will see new braille and wayfinding signage.

Two new bus lifts will allow the city of Tucson to provide maintenance to more buses, saving money in the future, according to Tucson City Manager Tim Thomure.

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“This will help keep our fleet in a good state of repair and reduce the need to rely on our general fund for these types of capital investments,” Thomure said.

The $11 million grant comes from the Federal Transit Administration (FTA). Since 2019, the city of Tucson has competed for and been awarded $489 million from the FTA—enabling Tucson to build the largest electric bus fleet in the Southwest.

“We are grateful to our congressional delegation and to the Biden/Harris administration for this funding made possible through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law,” Tucson Mayor Regina Romero said in a press release.

“This is an investment that we haven’t seen in decades in our country. Investments like these are helping us to address the challenges of today: climate change, accessibility, equity, disinvestment.”