Starting in 2023, only electric buses will be purchased in order to create a totally electric fleet in all of its vehicle classes by 2040, according to the Vancouver Sun. The company’s heavy-duty buses will be converted, initially, with the first 10 electric buses going into operation in 2021.
Earlier this month, on July 18, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was in Victoria along with B.C. Premier John Horgan and BC Transit president and CEO Erin Pinkerton, announced $79 million in funding for new buses. The funding includes $31 million in federal monies. B.C. is putting up $31 million of its own, while B.C. municipalities will make up the other $16 million, reported the Global News.
This initial funding will include money for 118 new buses to replace fleet vehicles that have reached the end of their operating life, with 10 of them long-range electric vehicles for the City of Victoria.
Minister of Agriculture lanapopham announces BC Transit is targeting to be fully electric by 2040. bcpoli greenplan RKk3NPzlM3
— BC Transit (@BCTransit) July 29, 2019
“Transit can have its biggest impact on reducing greenhouse gas emissions by getting people out of their vehicles and onto the bus… Our heavy-duty buses make up the majority of our fleet and in our analysis, we will be able to make the greatest greenhouse-gas-emission reduction gains through the electrification of our heavy-duty fleet,” said Aaron Lamb, Vice President of Asset Management for B.C. Transit.
Assessments still have to be made on energy capacity and infrastructure – as well as the overall costs involved in the transition to an all-electric fleet. Lamb says that “Any investment will have a payback in the long run, especially when you consider the price of diesel we have to purchase right now.”
Lamb added that with such a big transition, long-term planning is the sensible way to go. “When we buy a bus, we have that bus in our system for up to 13 years,” Lamb said, reports Electrive.com.
Currently, B.C. Transit’s bus fleet emits about 65,000 tons of greenhouse gases per year. The new fleet of electric buses will cut GHG emissions by 40 percent by 2030. “We’re really going to be able to make huge strides in GHG emissions and just regular emissions over the next decade,” Lamb said.
B.C. Transit will be working with B.C. Hydro on infrastructure requirements because charging stations will be needed for the new fleet, according to CBC Canada. B.C. Transit runs services across the province outside of Metro Vancouver, which is principally served by TransLink.
