Westline Launches First Electric Bus Service in Belize

Westline Bus Company’s new electric buses officially hit the road today, serving commuters traveling from Benque Viejo to Belize. Westline was awarded three electric buses as part of the Government of Belize’s E-mobility pilot project. The company will be serving routes in both the north and west. The buses were acquired through the European Union and the UN Development Program. Under the project, which will run for the next for months, Westline will conduct the bus runs and collect data for the ministry. Minister of Transportation Dr. Louis Zabaneh explained how the project works. 

Dr. Louis Zabaneh, Minister of Transport: “The three buses will be used, two on the George Price Highway and one on the Philip Goldson Highway. The buses will be serving Benque to Belize City and Belize City to Corozal and back and data will be collected on the amount of energy that is used on these various highways. Certainly the overall efficiency of the buses all of this data will be important going forward to determine the suitability of the bus, the number of seats in the bus, the profitability of the bus etc. So all that data will be coming back and will be very useful to us as we gradually transition to better forms of energy, electric energy buses for servicing our highways.”

Westline signed the contract for the E buses in late August, after successfully bidding for the project. The company says it will soon announce when the northern run will roll out.