Article

Case Study: Zion National Park's Electric Shuttles

By Claire Baker, NPS Climate Change Response Program, 2024

In September 2024, Zion National Park unveiled the first all-electric transit fleet in the National Park Service (NPS). The new shuttles help the NPS work towards sustainability goals, fight climate change, and inspire visitors to do the same.

A beige shuttle bus on a dark asphalt road in front of a large, triangular sandstone mountain. — NPS/Abi Farish

Zion National Park is beautiful. Every year, millions of people visit to spend time in the canyon landscape, experiencing the unique outdoor opportunities that the park has to offer. But in recent years, the pressures of climate change have begun reshaping conditions at the park. Scorching hot temperatures affect people’s health and safety, and changing weather conditions throw off patterns that have defined geological and ecological system for millennia.

Climate change is driven by people’s greenhouse gas emissions. Many of these emissions come from burning fossil fuels for energy, like burning gas to power cars. Visitors driving cars around Zion Canyon each year burn a lot of gas, contributing to the park’s overall carbon footprint. Cars also impact peoples’ experiences at Zion in other ways, like parking congestion, road noise, and air quality concerns.

Cars going through the entrance station for Zion National Park — Many visitors come to Zion in cars.
NPS / Jonathan Shafer

Car-related problems like congestion and noise have been a challenge for a long time. Zion’s staff started searching for solutions in the 1970s, eventually settling on a free shuttle system that would make part of the park accessible only on the shuttle bus. Their vision came true in 2000. At the time, park staff weren’t sure how the public would react to the change, but the system has proved popular. The shuttles have been boarded more than 95 million times in the 25 seasons since. But after all that use, and more than 20 years of service, the buses needed an update.

Today, climate change is a crucial aspect of park planning, including for projects like replacing the shuttles. Park staff know that we can help prevent the worst effects of climate change by reducing emissions now. The existing buses already helped shrink the park’s carbon footprint by reducing the number of cars on the road and choosing a relatively eco-friendly engine type. But when the time came to update the shuttles, staff saw an opportunity to reduce tailpipe emissions even further.

A sustainable shuttle service

When considering options for the future of the shuttle service, staff were motivated to make the most sustainable choice possible. The 1999 shuttles were powered by propane, a lower-emissions fuel option, but propane buses still emit a substantial amount of greenhouse gases¹. That technology might have been the best available when the buses were first made. But, 20 years later, better options were in reach, and park staff began looking into fully electric shuttle buses.

In 2021, their hard work paid off. They secured a $33 million grant from the Department of Transportation, covering almost all of the cost of transitioning the entire shuttle fleet to electric buses. Other grants and funding from the National Park Service, National Park Foundation, Zion Forever Project, Kane and Washington counties, and private donors covered the rest. The project was on the road.

The side of a shuttle bus, with art saying "Stories Preserved in Navajo Sandstone" and illustrations of dinosaurs — Art on the new shuttles celebrates many aspects of Zion. This bus spotlights the park's geologic history.
NPS Photo

The next challenge was logistics. The park had to select with the manufacturer to make the buses. They had to find and commission artists to design the exterior decoration. Chargers had to be planned and installed, with enough power to keep a whole electric fleet running. It took a while to establish enough details to get the process started. But in September 2023, an initial fleet of five electric buses hit Zion’s roads. The remaining 25 battery-electric shuttles were delivered in 2024, making Zion’s buses the first all-electric visitor transit fleet in the National Park Service.

All-around improvements

The electric shuttles are a big upgrade over the old fleet in terms of rider experience. For one thing, unlike most of the old buses, they have air conditioning—an increasingly important safety feature in a warming world. The new shuttles are also more accessible to people using wheelchairs, and have larger passenger capacities than their older counterparts.

Crucially, though, the new shuttle fleet helps the park fight climate change. It's estimated that the smaller shuttles in the fleet replace 29 cars every day. If all of those people instead drove gas-powered cars around they park, they would emit something like 8.67 metric tons of greenhouse gases each day².To offset the emissions from just one day of driving, you’d have to grow more than 150 trees for ten years². Using electric shuttles reduces those tailpipe emissions down to zero.

The future is electric!

Zion’s all-electric shuttle fleet is a groundbreaking step toward the NPS’s systemwide goal of 100% zero emissions vehicles. Since 2012, the NPS’ Green Parks Plan has outlined a vision of sustainable transportation in parks. In 2023, the third edition of the Green Parks Plan set out a specific goal: that all parks should transition to a completely zero-emissions transit fleet. Zion is the first park to achieve that standard, leading the way toward a sustainable transit future for all parks.

Other NPS sites are right on Zion’s heels. At Acadia National Park, park staff are working with concessioners to pilot an all-electric Island Shuttle. Grand Canyon National Park staff secured funding for 10 electric shuttle buses in 2023. Yosemite National Park acquired two battery-electric shuttles in 2017, and has now also started the funding process to electrify more of their shuttle fleet. Plus, many other parks across the country have invested in zero-emissions vehicles, for both staff and visitor transit.

All these electric transit vehicles are climate action ambassadors. At Zion, each bus was designed to showcase its zero-emissions status, with text telling riders that they’re boarding an electric vehicle. This shows millions of riders annually that Zion cares about climate change, and is taking action. If that inspires them to think, talk about, and act a little more on climate change, it will make a big difference. After all, everyone has a role to play in fighting climate change. Zion’s electrified fleet is a step on the path to a sustainable world, for the NPS and visitors alike. By following in their footsteps, we can all be inspired to hop on the bus and ride toward a brighter future.

Mention of trade names or commercial products in this article does not constitute endorsement or recommendation for use by the U.S. Government.

Thanks to Lisa Ogden and Matthew Fink for their input on this article.