Funding announced to electrify London, Ont.’s bus fleet

The Canadian Urban Transit Research and Innovation Consortium (CUTRIC), along with the federal government, announced a joint investment in the London Transit Commission (LTC) Tuesday.

“We're talking about transit and the $320,000 investment that the federal government is contributing towards planning, a planning focus that will allow for, among other things, a feasibility study to be conducted,” said Peter Fragiskatos, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of National Revenue and London, Ont. North Center MP.

The total investment is $400,000 into the Canadian Urban Transit Zero Emission Bus Joint Procurement Initiative, a new venture that begins with London and Burlington transit.

“For the first time in Canadian history, and for the first time in North American history, they will be planning out how to jointly procure electric busses with chargers and with the civil works. That turnkey solution is a game changer,” said Josipa Petrunić, president and CEO of CUTRIC.

Electrifying the bus fleet has been a goal of London city council for several years, but this process announced Tuesday will ensure the implementation learns from where others have failed.

“As exciting as it is to jump into this fleet transition, what's more important is if we do it right and that we learn from the mistakes that some other systems have made along the way,” said Kelly Paleczny, general manager at LTC.

While London Mayor Josh Morgan added the process is necessary to ensure the transition is successful.

“What we have today is our approach to a thoughtful procurement process, our approach to be strategic with this support from the federal government, the support of the transit commission and CUTRIC. What we will do is we will move to be smart about the procurement of electric busses,” said Morgan.

The initial procurement will be for 10 buses in London, along with the associated charging infrastructure, with the hope of adding replacement busses on an annual basis, according to Paleczny.

“The RFP is in the process of being developed right now. We're anticipating that it will be released this fall and awarded probably early 2024,” she said.

There is no definitive timeline when the busses will begin to run or which routes they will be dedicated. Those answers will become clearer next year.