St. Albert has joined Edmonton in the list of jurisdictions facing criticism for overpromising on the capabilities of expensive electric bus fleets.
The city’s electric buses have fallen short of their promised lifespan and performance, falling from what was initially thought to be 18 years to an expected lifespan of 12 years – 33% less than predicted.
“It’s disappointing that [the buses] didn’t live up to the hype,” said Coun. Wes Brodhead, according to the St. Albert Gazette.
In 2017, St. Albert distinguished itself as the first Canadian municipality to add long-range electric buses to its public transport system. It debuted three such buses in the spring and expanded the fleet by four more in 2018. The city received $2.1 million in funding from provincial and federal sources to help purchase the buses.
“This looks like a huge waste of taxpayers’ money at every level,” Canadian Taxpayer Federation’s Alberta director Kris Sims told True North.
She explained that this isn’t like buying a remote-controlled car for Christmas and having the batteries not work. The batteries cannot be replaced at the dollar store.
“City halls need to stop using taxpayers as guinea pigs for their pet projects that don’t work. Getting about half of the life span and drive distance that we were promised with these electric buses is not acceptable, and that’s not a good return on investment,” said Sims.
The buses, sourced from Chinese manufacturer BYD Ltd., experienced premature battery degradation, mechanical failures, and charger malfunctions, significantly hindering their efficiency and reliability.
A city spokesperson, Pamela Osborne, detailed the myriad issues plaguing the fleet.
“The battery replacements on our three BYD buses each took 80 days to accomplish and were out of service for the duration of the replacement,” she said.
This development echoes similar issues faced by Edmonton with its electric buses, adding to the growing skepticism surrounding the viability of electric public transit in Canadian cities. Most of Edmonton’s electric buses, manufactured by the now-bankrupt Proterra, remain inoperable, with no way to acquire the parts to fix them.
Forty-four of Edmonton’s 60 electric buses are no longer roadworthy. Proterra’s website claims that the buses can go up to 482 km on a single charge. However, the buses from Edmonton have a range of merely 117 km, not even a quarter of what was advertised.
This limited range means electric buses are only on the streets from 5-8:30 am before charging and eventually returning to the roads between 2:30-6:30 pm.
Conversely, a diesel ETS bus can be on the road for 21 hours without ever tanking up, Steve Bradshaw, president of the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 569, told the Edmonton Journal.
Despite the setbacks, St. Albert’s electric buses have yielded some environmental benefits.
Osborne highlighted, “The electric buses continue to produce 51 per cent less greenhouse gas emissions than the city’s diesel fleet.”
However, these gains are overshadowed by the buses’ limited range, especially during the winter months, and their higher frequency of breakdowns compared to diesel buses.
With the buses needing replacement by 2029-2030, future councils face the dilemma of either investing in newer models of electric buses, which currently cost around $1.3 million each, or considering alternative fuel buses.
“It just shows that with new technology, we have to be very, not skeptical, but very cautious,” said Coun. Mike Killick. “It’s a tough position for St. Albert, but certainly not as bad as the Edmonton situation,” he added.
Coun. Sheena Hughes voiced concerns over the financial impact, saying that there is no guarantee that St. Albert will receive future government funding to help purchase replacement buses.
“The next time some bureaucrat has a grand idea about making a big change like this (replacing diesel buses that work with electric ones that might not), the city councillors and the mayor need to ask themselves three basic questions, as economist Dr. Thomas Sowell has posed, said Sims.”
“‘Compared to what?’ ‘At what cost?’ ‘What hard data do you have?’ In this case, it looks like St. Albert city hall has struck out on all three questions, and taxpayers are left with the bill.”
