The ZEB Debate
On January 25th, City Council voted to send the matter of electric buses (often referred to as Zero-Emission Buses, or ZEBs) to the Transit Commission for further debate. I was one of 20 Councillors that agreed that this program needs further debate. Here’s why.
On the face of it, ZEBs seem like a wise investment as the City is receiving generous loan conditions from the federal government, in addition to a substantial grant, to cover the cost differences between ZEBs and diesel buses and build charging infrastructure. Even so, ZEBs are still somewhat more expensive for the City than diesel buses.
However, the most important issue with these buses is that they simply do not work as well as our current fleet of mostly diesel buses.
Their ranges are only half the range of diesel buses, meaning that they will be less able to serve suburban and rural communities. They take 4 hours to charge, meaning that they are difficult to return to service quickly, such as if R1 bus service must be implemented to cover for our under-performing LRT. Their batteries deteriorate and must be replaced sooner than the buses themselves and they have reduced operational effectiveness in cold conditions, meaning that they are less reliable for our City.
Due to all these issues, staff estimate that these buses can only effectively serve 60% of our existing transit routes. The City hopes to convert the entire fleet to ZEBs eventually; if they cannot work as efficiently as diesel buses, then why would we make the switch to pay extra for worse buses? The decrease in service effectiveness will likely result in more residents driving their cars.
The failure to consider these factors makes one question whether the program has been adequately studied, or if the City is risking rushing into another transit boondoggle just like it did with the LRT.
While I support upgrading our bus fleet for the future, it is unclear whether ZEB accomplish that goal. The plan as it stands appears to overstate the benefits and understate the drawbacks. For those reasons, I am opposed to the purchase of these buses.
Residents in our City have endured enough experimentation on transit. It is time to get back to basics: to fix our roads, invest in infrastructure, and deliver vital services more effectively. These are the tasks that Council should be focused on.