TransLink's battery-electric buses hit the road in Metro Vancouver
Credit to Author: Jennifer Saltman| Date: Thu, 12 Sep 2019 00:06:43 +0000
Transit users who take the bus along Route 100 between Vancouver and New Westminster are about to get a quieter, smoother and cleaner ride.
On Wednesday, TransLink put its first battery-electric buses on the road, kicking off a 30-month pilot project to test the technology in Metro Vancouver. The project looks at bus performance, maintenance and customer experience.
“Today is truly the start of a new era, an era where clean energy is not just an option, but it is a default fuel of choice,” said TransLink CEO Kevin Desmond.
The two-and-a-half-year, $10-million project will see four battery-electric buses running on Route 100, powered by two charging stations at Marpole and 22nd Street stations. It takes about five minutes to charge a bus at each end of the 18-kilometre route, and the charge is good for about 100 kilometres.
The New Flyer and Nova buses were purchased using federal gas-tax money, and the rest of the funding for the project came from Natural Resources Canada, B.C. Hydro and the City of Vancouver.
Two buses hit the road on Wednesday, and it is expected the other two will go into service within the next few days, after final testing and training.
Josipa Petrunic, CEO of the Canadian Urban Transit Research and Innovation Consortium, which is a partner in the pilot, said the battery-electric buses cost, on average, $1 million to $1.1 million, while diesel buses are $500,000 to $600,000. Petrunic said based on the information that is available, the electric buses pay for themselves within four or five years.
Each bus will remove about 100 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions and save $40,000 in fuel costs per year compared to a diesel bus.
Although there is no hard data on how electric bus maintenance costs compare to those of diesel buses, Petrunic said it is expected they will be simpler and cheaper to maintain.
Last fall, TransLink’s Mayors’ Council and board of directors approved the transit authority’s low-carbon fleet strategy, which calls for the agency to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 80 per cent and use 100-per-cent renewable energy in all operations by 2050.
“It’s not just bout keeping things moving. We have to make sure we do it sustainably,” said Vancouver Mayor Kennedy Stewart. “This battery-electric bus pilot is a critical way that we are gong to reach our targets.”
Half of TransLink’s 1,500-bus fleet uses cleaner technology, including electric trolley buses, compressed natural gas buses and diesel-electric hybrid buses.
TransLink has also ordered six more battery-electric buses, which will come later next year and be added to Route 100. The goal is to make that route entirely electric.
TransLink isn’t the only transit agency looking to reduce emissions.
B.C. Transit, which operates 1,100 buses across the province — but not in Metro Vancouver — launched its low-carbon fleet program in July, which calls for a switch from diesel-powered to zero-emission vehicles. The transit authority is expected to roll out the program over the next decade or so.