While proposals for the buses will be sent out at the end of the year, the buses may not arrive until 2026, said Stephen James, senior structural engineer for Calgary Transit
The city’s termination of a contract with a floundering B.C-based supplier of electric buses signals further delays to a pilot project aimed at decarbonizing its vehicle fleet.
And the number of emissions-free buses now being sought by the city both for a shuttle vehicle pilot project and full-sized vehicles for a nearly $500 million fleet transition has been reduced significantly, leaving one city councilor raising questions about the electrification strategy.
In 2021, the city had originally placed a $6 million order to purchase 14 emissions-free, 28-ft shuttle buses from Vicinity Motor Corp. that were expected to be delivered in 2022.
But city officials now say that contract was cancelled last spring, further pushing back the procurement of a shrunken batch of electric vehicles – five to seven of them – to be deployed for a $14 million pilot project testing their viability as community shuttles.
“It became clear (Vicinity) wouldn’t be able to deliver the buses,” said Stephen James, senior transportation engineer with Calgary Transit.
“We were receiving notifications of delay after delay with not much explanation.”
No money was paid to Vicinity during either that contract or for its cancellation, he said.
Requests for proposals to bus manufacturers will be sent out by year’s end but it might not be until 2026 when those vehicles are delivered, said James.
Late last winter, the city said it had paused the process of receiving 14 of the 28-foot shuttle vehicles after supply chain issues had led to production delays at Vicinity’s factory in Washington state.
On Oct. 11, Vicinity Motor Corp. issued a press release saying efforts to renegotiate its credit terms with RBC and Export Development Canada have failed and that it’s likely they’ll be forced to shut down their operations.
“(Vicinity) believes that the creditors will proceed toward receivership enforcement impeding the Company’s ability to continue to operate. If that happens, the Company will likely be forced to lay off its remaining staff and cease operations,” stated the company late last week.
Vicinity didn’t respond to requests for an interview.
An update this month on the city’s web page states “unfortunately, it’s taking longer than we anticipated to get zero-emission battery electric shuttle buses we need for our pilot. We’re committed to completing the pilot.”
Of the pilot project’s $14 million budget, $7 million is coming from the provincial government’s Emissions Reduction Alberta grant program.
In June, 2023, the federal government and the city announced a $325-million grant that would help the city purchase 259 new 40-ft. electric buses – representing about a quarter of the city’s current diesel and compressed natural gas-fueled fleet – aiding the city’s work toward an emissions-free transit fleet by 2050.
The grant nearly tripled the funding earmarked for electrifying Calgary’s transit fleet, building on a $165-million loan issued in February by the Canada Infrastructure Bank – a federal Crown corporation that lends cash to public-interest infrastructure projects.
But while requests for proposals for potential suppliers of those buses were issued earlier this month, the ballooning cost of the vehicles means the number being sought by the city has been scaled back from 259 to 180, said James.
The wider energy transition means many other jurisdictions and operators are ordering electric buses, he said.
“We’ve seen the prices of the buses go up substantially – demand for them has driven up the price quite a bit,” said James.
The cost of a 40-ft. electric bus can reach $1.7 million compared to $800,000 for a diesel vehicle and $1 for a compressed natural gas version.
The city has said delivery of the larger fleet of buses – which wasn’t related to any contracts with Vicinity Motor – would accelerate the retirement of its diesel fleet and reduce emissions by 13,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide per year.
But Ward 2 Coun. Jennifer Wyness said she fears inflation will keep eating into the number of buses the city will be able to purchase as time continues to drag on.
And she said the federal government’s green energy plan funding municipalities’ purchase of EVs has led to the costly logjam.
“At the end of the day, it signaled to the market you’d have all these municipalities clamouring for buses and it’ll have an effect on prices,” said Wyness.
“Now, I have money sitting in reserves that could go to other projects – because we don’t have a reliable supply stream.”
If procurement delays persist, ensuring a rapidly-growing city has enough public transit buses is thrown into doubt, she added.
“We’re doing the best maintenance we can to keep (our existing bus fleet) on the road…in Ward 2, we’re always asking for more buses,” said Wyness.
“We have to have a line where we say this isn’t working.”
Fourteen charging stations have been installed at Calgary Transit’s Spring Garden facility to service both shuttle and full-sized buses, funded with $6 million through a separate infrastructure contract, said James.
It’s unlikely, he said, that Calgary Transit entire fleet will be electrically-powered.
“We know there are other technologies on the horizon – hydrogen could be something very workable for zero emissions solutions,” he said.
Delays to the city’s vehicle fleet electrification strategy is the latest stretch of rough road for Calgary’s public transit future, driven largely by accelerating costs.
In early September, the province abruptly announced it wouldn’t fund the city’s plan to construct the LRT Green Line from Eau Claire in the downtown to Ogden.
Last week, the UCP government said it would resume its $1.5 billion funding share for the Green Line with an extended route to Shepard but with no immediate blueprint on how it would proceed through the downtown core.
As of last year, Edmonton had 20 electric buses in operation, stemming from a deal with the Canada Infrastructure Bank in 2021
-with files from Michael Rodriguez
X: @BillKaufmannjrn