Edmonton Transit System Adds Hybrid Buses to the Fleet
Editor’s note: I’ve added a new category called “Civics.” This category will cover things like city politics, services, education, and any other kind of issue or policy that affects the city as a whole.
Recently, as I was driving to work, I noticed a city bus that looked a little bit different than the rest of the New Flyers, driving down Whyte Avenue. The main difference was the paint job. At first, I thought the bus had been turned into a moving billboard, and that the unusual paint job was simply an advertisement that had been painted onto the diesel wagon. I was wrong.
In fact, the paint job announced that this was a hybrid bus. The Edmonton Transit System (ETS) is experimenting with hybrid technology on some of their buses. They’re also running some new clean burning diesel buses, and they’ve retro-fitted some of the older buses with a new filter to reduce diesel particulate emissions by up to 80%.
I was very impressed when I saw the new hybrid bus rolling down the Avenue[1]. There are only 2 of them, at the moment, but I’m hoping that the experiment will prove to be beneficial to both the ETS, and it’s customers. If the project is a success, they might start replacing the remaining old school Flyers with hybrids.
The air quality in Edmonton is pretty good, most days, especially when compared to larger or more industrialized cities in Canada (and the world). It’s not perfect, but it’s good. Using hybrid buses in our transit fleet will help maintain our air quality, and help the environment.
While I don’t use the transit system these days, I’m very glad to see the ETS trying to become more fuel efficient, and improve (or at least maintain) Edmonton’s air quality in the process. Hopefully, the hybrid bus program will prove to be a success, and we’ll get more of them in the future.
For more information about the ETS and the environment, please visit ETS and the Environment.
*****
[1] These buses have actually be in service since December 2006. However, I’ve never seen one of them before, and I suspect the same is true for most people (except for those who ride the routes the hybrids are running on).
I was going to say, until I read your footnote, that the hybrids had been around for a while.
Did you notice the brand new electric bus though? K. and I were sitting on the *other* Ave (Jasper) and saw a brand new trolley bus drive past. I was under the impression that trolley buses were on the way out. If you want to cut down on tail-pipe emissions, not having a tail pipe is certainly a start.
allan
20 Sep 07 at 11:34 am
I haven’t actually seen the new trolley, no. In fact, I wasn’t even aware of it until I read about it on the ETS website.
Continuing to use trolley buses—and bringing in new ones—is certainly a positive move. I’d actually like to see the trolley system expanded, however, the infrastructure necessary would probably be insanely expensive. Plus, if the power goes out at a point on the grid that is connected to the trolley lines, the buses stop moving (unless they’re on a separate grid).
Now, if we had fully electric buses, that didn’t require being connected to the trolley lines for power (i.e.: plug them in at the bus barns at the end of the day for recharging), that would be great. Of course, until the day that Big Oil stops killing the electric car, that’s probably not going to happen.
Adam Snider
20 Sep 07 at 11:45 am
“Plus, if the power goes out at a point on the grid that is connected to the trolley lines, the buses stop moving (unless they’re on a separate grid).”
They are. But even if power goes out to one part of the trolley grid, the new bus has batteries that usually have enough power to get to an energized part.
Lorna
29 Sep 07 at 2:29 pm
Ah, okay. That makes sense. I guess only a fool would have designed things “my way.” Thanks for the info, Lorna.
Adam Snider
30 Sep 07 at 12:25 pm
Some more information for you from my post on the 2007 ETS Community Conference: http://blog.mastermaq.ca/archive/2007/03/10/6864.aspx
“ETS has ordered six hybrid buses, two of which are already in service. Each one costs around $700,000.”
Mack D. Male
10 Oct 07 at 9:45 pm
Thanks for the extra info, Mack. Good to see a fellow Edmonton blogger. I’ll have to keep an eye on your blog…your feed is now in my Google Reader.
Adam Snider
11 Oct 07 at 9:16 am
I’ve subscribed to yours too…found you via Twitter!
Mack D. Male
11 Oct 07 at 11:41 am
Cool. I see you’re following me. I’m trying to follow your Twitter stream in return, but Twitter seems to be bugging out…again.
Adam Snider
11 Oct 07 at 12:07 pm