Travelling around Edmonton will soon be a lot greener thanks to the arrival of 21 brand new Proterra electric buses in the city today.
As part of their goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 50% in the next decade, the City of Edmonton purchased a total of 40 of the electric buses, making it the largest purchase of electric buses in Canadian history.
“Electric buses are a major component of the future of public transit in our city and across Canada, because they save the City money and benefit not only transit users who will get to experience the perks of a quieter commute with decreased emissions, but also Edmontonians who aren’t regular commuters on our transit system, as they’ll also benefit from the city meeting its energy and climate goals,” says Edmonton Mayor Don Iveson.
The 40-foot Proterra Catalyst E2 Max electric bus selected by Edmonton Transit Service (ETS) will go into service in early August.
It comes equipped with 660kWh of energy from six battery packs, delivering 550 peak horsepower. At a full charge, ETS says the electric buses will have 350km of range, enough to service all ETS routes.
When they do run low on battery power, they will be charged at the brand new Kathleen Andrews Garage, named after Edmonton’s first woman transit operator, who worked for the City for 23 years.
The garage was purpose built for the new buses and is the first of its kind in North America. What makes it unique are the 26 150kW overhead chargers, allowing drivers to pull into a charging spot, flip a switch, and charging will begin immediately.
“From the start, we’ve been very intentional about how we’ve designed our electric bus program,” says Ryan Birch, Director of Transit Operations, ETS. “We’ve taken a unique approach to charging our buses inside transit facilities. This provides important redundancy that makes our electric bus fleet more reliable for transit customers, and will help us continue to modernize our transit system.”
Along with the overhead chargers, a further 7 60kW plug-in chargers are also in the garage for when the buses require maintenance.
The electric buses will add to the current fleet of over 1,000 diesel buses operated by ETS, providing more than 87 million rides per year.
We are excited to give the Mayor and the media a sneak peek of the first electric buses that go into service in early August. These buses come with protective Operator shields, are less expensive to service/maintain than diesel & contribute to a greener #yeg. #yegtransit pic.twitter.com/yk2T4IqmjS
— Edmonton Transit Service (ETS) (@takeETSalert) July 23, 2020
Source: [Newswire]
