Taxpayers will be on the hook for the cost of converting some of OC Transpo’s fleet of nearly 180 hybrid buses back to diesel after promised saving on running costs failed to materialize.
It has been just four years since Ottawa purchased the fleet of 177 hybrid buses, a deployment that was not only considered environmentally friendly but also a big potential savings on fuel costs.
But after spending millions on battery replacements last year and disappointingly small fuel savings, OC Transpo wants to turn five hybrid buses into regular diesel-run vehicles to see if the entire fleet of hybrids should eventually be converted.
In the draft 2013 budget, more than $550,000 is outlined for the project.
“The goal is to see if converting the five is going to make economic sense and to see what kind of savings we can get,” says Craig Watson, president of the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 279.
Earlier this year, OC Transpo announced no more hybrid buses would be purchased.
In an email, a spokesperson for OC Transpo said it will not be commenting on any hybrid-related questions prior to the budget deliberations.
The conversion to diesel engines is intended to be more economical.
However, hybrid buses cost about $650,000 each — up to $150,000 more than a regular bus. On top of those original costs, each alteration from hybrid to diesel is expected to cost around $75,000 per bus.
Hybrid buses run on both rechargeable batteries and smaller diesel engines.
The batteries recharge every time the bus brakes so less fuel is consumed.
The hybrid buses were originally bought to lower fuel costs by up to 35 per cent.
However, the transit company is realizing that this has not panned out. The city ended up spending $1 million more on fuel than estimated last year.
“It’s an unfortunate situation. You can’t blame the current management,” says Watson.
“You have to go back and blame the previous one to a certain extent. Everyone thought this technology was going to be the latest and greatest.”
In 2004, the city paid the National Research Council of Canada to conduct a study on hybrid buses before any purchases were made.
The study outlined that the city would only get the expected savings if the hybrid buses were used on low-speed routes with frequent stops, such as Bank Street and Somerset Street.
When hybrid buses are used on high-speed roads with few stops, fuel consumption is similar to that of a regular diesel bus.
“If we change over the whole fleet to diesel we will be completely throwing away our investment we made in this green technology and that would be a huge mistake because it could have been avoided,” says David Jeanes, president of Transport Action Canada, an advocacy group that lobbies for better public transit.
Watson explains that the purchase was made even after serious faults were found with hybrid buses in Toronto.
“We continued to go ahead with the purchase and they’re just not working out. They’re not saving the kind of money we hoped they would save,” Watson says.
The 2008 budget outlined that the hybrid buses would only be used on the low-speed frequent stop routes. However, that didn’t happen.
“Instead, they should have done their actual research and maybe we should have just bought a few of them initially for the first year and (to determine) if we were going to see some savings,” Watson says about city’s management of the project.
Before the fleet of hybrids was purchased, Jeanes says he repeatedly told councillors the hybrids need to be tested properly. But the one-year pilot project never happened, he says.
If the proposed project is a success, the rest of the fleet is expected to be converted. City council plans to vote on the draft budget this month.
“(This mistake) was entirely predictable,” says Jeanes. “The city seemed to ignore the advice it paid for.”