The Inter-Mountain photo by Edgar Kelley One of the two electric school buses Randolph County Schools purchased last year has arrived and began transporting children on Monday. Officials said the second bus should arrive within the next three months.

ELKINS — One of the two electric school buses Randolph County Schools purchased last year has arrived and officially started transporting students.

Transportation Director Nick Alfred told The Inter-Mountain that the electric bus made its inaugural run in the county on Monday.

“We started running the new electric bus on Monday and we haven’t heard anything but positives about it,” Alfred said. “We ran it all day Monday, all day Tuesday, and put it on the charger Tuesday night when it was still at 35%. We probably could have gotten another day out of it but didn’t want to push it.”

The two Thomas electric buses can travel for up to 150 miles on a single charge, school officials said last year.

Alfred said the electric bus is currently running a route in the downtown Elkins area and transporting students from Third Ward Elementary, Elkins Middle School and Elkins High School.

“It’s like our downtown bus,” Alfred said. “It does a lot of the downtown areas through Hardees and everything in that direction. The driver has been very happy with it and so far we haven’t had any issues.”

Jerry Arbogast, who has been driving a bus for the school system for the past eight years, told The Inter-Mountain he wasn’t sure what to expect when he learned he would be driving the new electric bus.

“When Nick (Alfred) asked me to drive it, I told him I would give it a try,” Arbogast said. “Now after driving it a couple days, I don’t mind it a bit.”

Arbogast said there aren’t many differences between the electric bus and a gasoline-powered bus, other than that the electric bus doesn’t make much noise.

“All of my buttons are the same and driving it is the same,” Arbogast said. “From zero to 30 miles-per-hour it gets there quickly, but when it gets to 30 miles-per-hour that’s when it shifts its gears. Once it gets that gear change done, however it works, it climbs pretty good after that. There’s just a little pause right there around that 30 mile-per-hour mark. Other than that, it runs well and it’s really quiet. A lot of the parents have told me they can’t hear me coming.”

The total price for the two school buses came in at $774,064. Because of a state grant, however, the buses only cost Randolph County Schools $32,705. The charger for the buses was an additional $34,780 and is capable of charging both vehicles.

“We have the charger over at the bus garage and it’s a dual charger,” Alfred said. “It has two ports so it will charge them both at the same time.”

Alfred said that both buses can transport up to 77 passengers.

“Hopefully we will get the other bus in the next few months, that’s what they are telling me,” Alfred said. “I have another route for it when it gets here, it’s a Midland Elementary School route.”

Randolph County Schools is still in need of bus drivers and will host a “drive a bus” event on Saturday at Elkins High School from 7:30 a.m. until 11:30 a.m. Anyone with a driver’s license can attend the event and drive a school bus to see whether or not they are interested in becoming a driver.

Call 304-636-9150 (extension 119) for more information on the “drive a bus” event or about becoming a school bus driver.