The MBTA charted out sweeping goals four years ago to electrify a swath of its bus fleet by 2028 and update facilities to be able to charge hundreds of new zero-emission vehicles.
The agency is not especially close — or on its buses, getting closer — to realizing those goals.
Just 125 of the T’s roughly 1,000 buses are entirely electric, a T official told its board of directors on Thursday before they approved the purchase of dozens more hybrid vehicles for $83 million.
Those 65 buses, slated for delivery in 2028, will run on traditional diesel engines and electric battery power. They’ll replace deteriorating buses traversing Massachusetts roads since at least 2008, according to William Wolfgang, the T’s director of vehicle engineering.
But as hybrid buses, they do not count toward the T’s goal to have nearly 30 percent of its bus fleet fully electrified by 2028.
Fuel usage aside, the T argues that hybrid buses still reduce emissions and improve air quality without requiring costly investments in electric chargers.
The Globe reported last year that the agency is years behind schedule on electrification obligations mandated by state law. It committed in 2022 to only purchase electric buses after 2030. By the end of 2024, the agency said it would modernize its nine bus facilities with high-capacity charging infrastructure and retire all buses that burn on fossil fuels.
Those figures are a reach from reality: In the T’s bus fleet today, Wolfgang told board members, more than 700 vehicles are electric hybrids, and 175 run on compressed natural gas. He said 125 buses are classified as zero-emission electric vehicles; that would be roughly 10 percent of the fleet.
The agency previously blamed unforeseen cost increases and supply chain issues for delays in its effort to rebuild or retrofit garages to be able to charge electric buses. Updated bus garages in North Cambridge and Quincy are now under construction, according to the T.
T general manager and interim secretary of transportation Phil Eng on Thursday billed the hybrid bus deal as an “exciting” move toward more reliable transit service, even though the new vehicles are not all-electric.
He pointed out that the majority of the new hybrid bus purchase is financed by a $78 million grant from the Federal Transit Administration.
This move, he said, focuses on what can be feasibly done now.
“How do we keep today’s system running safe and reliable, as we’re building the future modernized, decarbonized T?” he said. “It’s like riding the bicycle while you’re changing the tire at the same time.”
The agency is also working on a systemwide decarbonization plan, Eng said.
The T did purchase 40 all-electric buses from Canadian bus manufacturer New Flyer Industries in December. The same company will construct the 65 hybrid vehicles approved Thursday. Its contract with the T includes an option for the agency to order another 235 buses, should additional funding become available.
On Thursday, the T board also gave agency leaders the go-ahead to buy 10 diesel and 10 battery-electric commuter rail locomotives for $310 million. The purchase will help the system phase out the oldest of its locomotives, which have been on the tracks for more than 50 years.
Its new electric locomotives will be quieter than existing trains and put out 80 percent fewer emissions, Wolfgang said. They will eventually be used on the T’s Providence line, already equipped with overhead power from Amtrak service on the tracks.
“Our entire system is not electrified,” Eng said. “So we do need to make sure, while we are identifying funds and how to actually electrify the system, we have [the] cleanest ... locomotives.”
The non-electric purchases of both buses and commuter rail trains drew some public criticism Thursday.
Mela Bush-Miles, coordinator of transit equity at the Boston-based Action for Equity, urged the T to stop buying gas-guzzling vehicles as it tackles its climate goals.
“Why are you procuring and buying diesel trains locomotives at this point, and not leasing them, when the future is in the electrification of the transportation and the rail system?” she asked.
A long-awaited plan to electrify the Fairmont commuter rail line has repeatedly hit delays, too, and will now be completed by 2030.
Chris Friend, interim executive director of transportation advocacy group TransitMatters, also criticized the T for not offering information about service upgrades on the Providence line tied to the procurement of new electric trains.
“We do not know the frequency of service that the MBTA will be able to deliver on the Providence Line with these new battery electric locomotives, nor do we know the new Providence Line trip speeds that can make the commuter rail more competitive with driving,” Friend said.
Diti Kohli can be reached at diti.kohli@globe.com. Follow her @ditikohli_.