40 electric buses set to hit the road
The wheels on the electric bus will be going round and round permanently in Edmonton starting next year.
A $43-million joint-funding announcement held Friday in the city’s southwest heralded the impending inclusion of electric buses to the transit fleet starting in 2019.
At first it will be just five buses added to the city’s fleet of about 1,000 vehicles but later that same year and sometime in 2020 the city will receive the remaining 35 vehicles, Mayor Don Iveson said.
The federal government is contributing $21.5 million to the green initiative, with the province and the city contributing $10.8 million each.
Iveson said negotiations with the supplier are just wrapping up and a further announcement about procurement is in the wind.
The initial buses will be based out of the new Kathleen Andrews Garage near Fort Road with new charging infrastructure already being incorporated into the underconstruction garage.
As the fleet expands, garages will be retrofitted to include charging infrastructure, Iveson said.
Buses on loan to the city have proven that they operate well in Edmonton’s long and meandering winters, he said.
“The technology is ready for cold-weather adoption,” he said.
“It was tests in Edmonton that helped show the world that electric technology is ready for adoption in all climates.”
While the buses cost about twice as much as their diesel counterparts, in the long run they cost less to run over the lifetime of the vehicle thanks in part to fewer moving parts meaning a smaller parts inventory and savings in maintenance, he said.