OC Transpo’s Jean-Yves Carrier admires one of Ottawa’s first hybrid buses.
It’s cleaner, it’s quieter, and it’s hybrid.
The first hybrid diesel-electric bus has hit route 18 in Centretown, running down Albert Street, from Lyon Street to Churchill Avenue.
The bus is a pilot project the city and OC Transpo began in mid-November, says Jean-Yves Carrier, director of fleet services for OC Transpo.
Bay Coun. Alex Cullen, chair of the transit committee, says he’s supported the project since 2007 when city council approved the purchase of 202 hybrid buses, costing $650,000 each, from Daimler Buses North America.
“It’s our contribution to improving the environment,” Cullen says.
Only two buses have been purchased for testing so far, but all 202 will come from the same company that manufactured Toronto’s hybrid buses. These use lead acid batteries that last for one-and-a-half years.
Ottawa’s buses however, should last at least five years because they will use lithium-ion batteries instead, Cullen says.
These batteries are better for Ottawa, says Cullen, because they recharge every time the bus brakes and hybrid buses will be placed along routes with frequent breaking and low speeds.
The low speeds help reduce the amount of diesel the engine will require when the bus switches from the battery back to the engine.
“We’re collecting data on fuel economy, maintenance costs and overall reliability of the bus and we’ll be able to assess the value of having hybrid buses versus diesel buses,” says Carrier.
The pilot project is also a test to see how the bus operates in winter, he says.
A 30-per-cent drop in greenhouse gas emissions and fuel costs is expected in each bus they shift from diesel to hybrid, Carrier says.
“We need to reduce the amount of pollution that our buses are providing,” says Cullen.
Hybrid buses are good for Ottawa because they’re fuel-efficient, says Ata M. Khan, an expert on city transportation at Carleton University.
The lithium-ion battery means hybrid buses can afford to have smaller diesel engines and use less fuel than diesel buses, he says.
The pilot project ends March 2009. In the following months the city will buy 95 more buses for a fleet of 97, says Carrier. It will be more than 10 years after Toronto and New York City began using hybrid buses.
Khan says Ottawa had reason to wait.
“It is a question of budget,” he says. “Also they were waiting for technology to mature a little bit.”
Now that the first bus has hit Ottawa’s streets, Carrier says he’s excited to see the results of the project.
“I am not expecting to see the problems. I’m expecting to see a much better fuel economy than the 10 per cent that they’ve been reporting [in Toronto],” he says.
Carrier will be monitoring feedback from passengers, drivers and analysts over the next few months to assess the benefits of going hybrid.
“I’ve talked to one driver who has been driving the bus last week and he was very content and the bus ride was very smooth,” he says.
But hybrid buses are not the last stop for environmentally friendly transportation, says Khan. Fuel-cell technology is even more efficient because it uses hydrogen, and is already part of transit systems in cities like Vancouver, he says.
But it could be a while before the technology reaches Ottawa, as it is still very expensive, says Khan.
“As a bridging mechanism between the diesel engines and the fuel-cell buses of the future, hybrid buses are in between, so they do serve a purpose,” he says.
Carrier says most residents of Centretown won’t notice the difference between hybrid and diesel from the street, but passengers are more likely to have a pleasant and quiet hybrid-ride.