New electric buses ready to hit the road in Edmonton

Electric buses ready to hit the road Edmonton is almost ready to put half of its new fleet of electric buses into service. Amanda Anderson reports.

EDMONTON — A fleet of battery-electric buses will join Edmonton's transit system in August.

Edmonton Transit Service says the new vehicles offer a smoother and quieter ride than the traditional diesel buses.

Officials say they can run about 350 kilometres in a single charge, even during Edmonton's cold winters.

"There's very minimal difference between summer and winter conditions for the range," Ryan Birch with ETS said. "There's a slight impact but we were confident that it'll serve all of our routes."

The cost of the 21 buses and charging stations combined was $43.1 million, with each bus costing $1.2 million.

The average cost of a diesel bus, at $600,000, is lower -- but city officials say the new fleet will be about 30 per cent more efficient.

"At a time where we’re all sort of scratching our heads to make sure that all civic expenditures, particularly transit, are as efficient as possible and as focused as possible, these super efficient buses will help us long into the future to control the cost of delivering service," Mayor Don Iveson commented.

"Over the life of the bus, taking everything into account it is actually more cost effective."

He is hoping the fleet has benefits for all city residents, not just riders.

"On the bus it’s quieter, but also when the bus is going by for people on the sidewalk, people on patios, people in residential neighbourhoods, the bus will have much lower impact in terms of what people hear. And of course there’s no tailpipe."

The Kathleen Andrews Transit Garage will be home base for the electric fleet. The garage is equipped with overhead charging stations.

The buses will hit the road in phases starting Aug. 4.

Another 19 battery-electric buses are expected to arrive in the fall and be put into service by the end of the year.

The batteries have a 12-year life expectancy, the buses themselves about 20 years.

With files from CTV News Edmonton's Amanda Anderson