Suspend E-Bus Purchase, Lo Says

09/19/2025

OC Transpo’s ongoing fleet age and availability issues are compounded, not only by delays at the bus manufacturers for new electric buses on order for two years now, but also by the service cuts in April, which has increased the capacity demand on each vehicle.

It has led to service reliability issues (especially during peak hours), vehicle overcrowding, and passengers unable to board full buses, among other issues.

Also, with the untested abilities of high-capacity e-buses, transit staff in 2024 shifted to procuring 40-foot buses exclusively for the foreseeable future. In fact, Winnipeg Transit became the first Canadian agency to test an articulated e-bus starting just last month, meaning they likely won’t be an option for at least a few more years.

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This newsletter excerpt from Barrhaven East Councillor Wilson Lo is courtesy of the city-wide community group Your Applewood Acres (And Beyond) Neighbours

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Staff’s assertion is that using more 40-foot buses means better frequency and, therefore, better service. While true, the reality of operator recruitment and retention across the transportation sector makes that an aspirational goal.

With that in mind, at a recent Transit Committee meeting, I moved a notice of motion? to suspend e-bus procurement in favour of high-capacity diesel or diesel-electric hybrid buses for the 2026 budget cycle (with language for purchasing options in future years and exploring joint procurement opportunities with other transit agencies).

Although diesel and hybrid buses generate more emissions than e-buses, a good transit system with diesel or hybrid buses will reduce more emissions than a bad transit system waiting on e-buses. That is still progress and is a practical solution for OC Transpo’s desperate fleet and service situation.

(There’s also the question of how emissions from producing and disposing of e-bus batteries compare to diesel and hybrid buses, but that’s a discussion for another time.)

Then there is the cost. In January 2023, the City approved a $974 million program, comprising $335 million in municipal funds, a $289-million Canada Infrastructure Bank low-interest loan, and $350 million in federal funding, to purchase 350 e-buses.

The City’s $335 million is based on the cost of 350 diesel buses, while the low-interest loan pays for charging infrastructure at the St-Laurent bus garage, and the federal funding covers the cost differential between electric buses and diesel buses.

I was the only councillor on transit committee to have voted against approving the program, though five Councillors did join me in voting against it at council.

I highlighted the fact that the Council was making a near-billion-dollar decision based on a one-year pilot of four e-buses that included just one winter, which I don’t believe to be responsible stewardship of public funds.

In contrast, the Toronto Transit Commission had been piloting 60 e-buses for three-and-a-half years by that point and still continued purchasing hybrid buses as a transition technology (they would make the first large-scale e-bus purchase in 2023).

Additionally, though “only” $335 million of the $974 million was municipal money, the City would have to repay the $289 million plus interest, while the $350 million federal funding comes from the same source — you and me.

Speaking of the TTC, its board received a report in July 2025 which notes several considerations and risks of the e-bus program, including vehicle production lead times, an immediate need to replace aging buses, run incompatibility, charging capacity limitations, workforce requirements and operational agility in unplanned scenarios.

The report also notes limitations in e-bus performance (eg. range) will likely require an increase in operational costs, including a recommendation to increase the replacement ratio, from one e-bus replacing one diesel/hybrid bus to 1.05 e-buses replacing one diesel/hybrid bus, to provide the same level of service.

Left unaddressed, those considerations and risks could negatively impact service delivery and reliability. Most notably, the TTC report recommended the procurement of additional hybrid buses as insurance due to those considerations, risks, and uncertainties.

Both the TTC and OC Transpo’s pilot e-buses are the same New Flyer XE40 model of vehicle, with Toronto’s about two to three years older than ours. The TTC offers a good two-to-three-year technical and practical preview of our e-bus program.

Alongside my notice of motion, I submitted a formal inquiry on the e-buses, the e-bus program, and also to apply Ottawa data to the considerations noted in the TTC report, as, despite some differences in service design, the principles of the report are relevant across all transit agencies with e-buses.

The notice of motion will be discussed at the next transit committee meeting in November, while staff should have a response to my formal inquiry in about the same timeframe.

As background on the fleet situation, the City procured 631 buses in two large orders back in the 2000s. It was great for a time—two-thirds of the OC Transpo bus fleet was brand new, low(er) maintenance, and the city didn’t have to buy new buses for several years, but it was short-sighted.

Unsurprisingly, the buses all aged together, meaning their maintenance demands, including the need for a mid-life refurbishment, all came at the same time. Now, those buses are all reaching retirement age at the same time.

OC Transpo took a more staggered approach with bus procurement starting in 2018, placing smaller orders of new buses annually to avoid repeating the fleet situation that was only starting then.

The previous city council approved an e-bus pilot in 2019 but decided that all new bus purchases going forward would be electric before the first e-bus arrived. The four pilot e-buses would arrive mid-2021 and enter service in February 2022.

Due to a variety of factors, including pandemic delays and higher capital investment required of the bus manufacturer (because they get paid upon vehicle delivery), e-bus production lead times have stretched to two years from when an order is placed to when the vehicle is delivered. Previously, orders of diesel buses would arrive about a year after they were ordered.

Unlike cars, buses are always made to order, so there are no showrooms with new buses for sale. Used buses are difficult to come by, as transit agencies typically use their buses to the end of their service lives.

Switching to diesel or hybrid buses will not solve the fleet situation overnight. The buses will still need time to be delivered, but it will put us on a better path in the short term while the bus manufacturers sort out the e-bus delays.

We must be practical in the face of a desperate bus situation.