It is another step toward transitioning the London Transit Commission's fleet of buses to zero-emission.
London MPs Peter Fragiskatos and Arielle Kayabaga, along with Mayor Josh Morgan announced Tuesday the federal government and the City of London are investing $400,000 to plan for the switch.
"Electrification is where things need to go if we are going to get to net zero... It is completely feasible for the transit system here to electrify," said Fragiskatos. "The question now is how can we best make that happen, what is the most efficient and effective way to transition the fleet? The funding will go into studying that specific question."
Feasibility, implementation, and market studies into which electric buses and supporting infrastructure would be best suited for the city will be conducted in the months ahead. This work will be done by the Canadian Urban Transit Research and Innovation Consortium (CUTRIC), a non-profit organization which supports public transit agencies in the procurement of turn-key zero emission transit technologies.
"In London there is a certain size of battery pack that is needed [for electric buses] based on the distances, the ridership and the stopping and starting," said CUTRIC President and CEO Dr. Josipa Petrunic. "So we match what is in the marketplace with what they actually physically need here and what they can accommodate in the bus depot and then we take it out to the marketplace to launch a public procurement process. We expect it to be really competitive."
In terms of a timeline, Petrunic believes it will be another 12 months before a supplier is selected.
"By this time next year we would expect to know who the winner of the procurement process is, what the winning bid looks like, what the make and model of the buses would be," said Petrunic. "At that point it goes back to city council to decide if they want to proceed forward and actually buy this stuff."
The federal government is contributing $320,000 from its Zero Emission Transit Fund for the transition to electric buses. London is putting in $80,000.
To help enhance buying power, London Transit and Burlington Transit have joined a coalition of operators for a group-purchasing program called the Canadian Urban Transit Zero Emission Bus Joint Procurement Initiative (CUTZEB).
"Basically what CUTZEB is oriented around is planning out what if London bought ten buses and Burlington bought four and London bought two overhead chargers - which are usually a million dollars each - and Burlington bought a couple. Then if you bulk buy it not only can you standardize the technology you can also get some cheaper pricing."
London Transit currently has around 230 buses in its fleet. Plans to transition to net zero-emissions will begin with the acquisition of ten electric buses and the accompanying charging infrastructure.
