City falls behind on plan to replace aging buses

300 units will be needed by 2026, but money set aside for just 22

The City of Edmonton has 300 buses that need replacement over the next three years but doesn't have a quarter of a billion dollars set aside to do it.

Edmonton has fallen off the pace in replacing aging buses and the current budget allows for replacing fewer than one-tenth of the number that should be replaced, city council's urban planning committee heard Tuesday.

A total of 322 buses need to be replaced over the 2023-2026 budget cycle at a cost of $257.6 million, but only $17.6 million has been budgeted for 22 of those, according to a bus fleet replacement plan filed Tuesday.

“This is a topic that's really critical to city operations,” said assistant city manager Eddie Robar.

“Fleet age impacts the reliability of our service and how much service we can put out on the road. The challenges we face as an organization around all of the renewal budget has been discussed with council on a few occasions during the development of the four-year budget. Subsequently this particular report stems from some of the ideas we've had around how we address the challenges in bus fleet,” he said.

The current conventional fleet includes 968 buses, including 797 40-foot diesel units.

Over the last 17 years, Edmonton Transit Service replaced an average of 48 conventional buses per year.

Those numbers slow to a trickle in the existing 2023-2026 budget cycle.

Counting 103 bus replacements needed in 2027, some 425 buses — almost half the total 40-foot bus fleet — will need to be replaced over the next four years.

“There was a large purchase of buses in 2007, and then again in 2009. So what that meant was 355 buses purchased in those two years,” said Carrie Hotton-MacDonald, branch manager for Edmonton Transit Service.

“Guess what? Those buses are now 15 to 17 years old, and will need to be replaced over the next four years. When we buy buses in big numbers at once, it puts pressure on future budgets to maintain that same level when we need to replace them, which is what we're seeing now,” she said.

It's not just about having shiny transit units with that new-bus smell. Lagging transit service levels haven't kept up with population growth.

There's a gap of 260,000 annual service hours between the current service levels and transit service standards.

The North American average for retiring 40-foot buses is 15.1 years, with 81 per cent of them adhering to a 12-year age standard.

Currently Edmonton is retiring buses after 18 of the harshest winters on the continent.

EPS plans for conventional buses to have a “mid-life” refurbishment typically scheduled around the nine- or 10-year mark. But to mitigate the impact of a lower level of renewal, the city has started subjecting buses to a second “midlife” refurbishment to eke out the longest life possible.

“This approach is not common in transit and introduces additional risks for service disruptions and reliability issues,” Tuesday's report stated.

Spending on buses is a sore point for many Edmonton taxpayers, who are facing tax hikes and smarting from $82 million spent on an electric bus fleet purchased from a newbie American bus producer that has since filed for bankruptcy.

Those electric buses run very quietly but have substantive repair issues.

Challenges in Edmonton's icebound winters left ETS buying the transit equivalent of hot water bottles.

Strictly-proportioned cabs in the electric fleet led to reports of workers' compensation claims by larger or smaller drivers.

As many as three-fourths of the electric fleet was off the road mid-winter, according to Postmedia reports.

SPARE TIRES

A well-managed fleet means some buses serve as “spares,” creating a pool always available for maintenance, cleaning, fuelling and contingency bus and LRT service.

Transit agencies aim for a spare ratio of 18 per cent to 20 per cent.

Older fleets require a higher spare ratio due to increased maintenance needs.

The Edmonton conventional fleet's spare ratio is 24 per cent (approximately 236 spares), allowing for a maximum of 732 conventional buses in service at one time.

A healthy fleet should reach the inspection interval of 7,000 km, so most maintenance is planned. But older ETS buses don't meet that target, so breakdowns occur.

In 2023, rider satisfaction with on-time reliability averaged 77 per cent, compared to 82 per cent in 2022.

In addition to major mechanical issues resulting in breakdowns, there are higher “unpredictable failure” rates for older vehicles in electrical systems, fuel tanks and the like. They may also have non-standard parts, more difficult to procure and repair upon failure, resulting in buses being removed from service.

Newer buses typically deliver substantial savings in parts, labour and vendor expenses compared to buses more than 12 years old. Maintaining an older bus costs approximately $0.54 per kilometre more.

Replacing an additional 300 buses this budget cycle, with an average bus usage of 55,000 kilometres annually, would save taxpayers $8.9 million annually, the committee heard.

The ETS fleet of 55 60-foot articulated buses will start to renew in 2031, with 20 buses due.

Purchasing zero-emission buses will start in 2027, requiring advance spending on supporting infrastructure.

The city is weighing the purchase of hydrogen buses, which cost double what a diesel bus costs.

A lease approach would provide a mechanism to fund bus renewal using the operating budget, with the operating budget being funded through savings associated with reducing the fleet age, the report said.