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OTTAWA - Council approves hybrid bus purchase

 
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kevlaf983



Age: 41
Joined: 28 May 2007
Posts: 99
Location: Ottawa, ON, Canada

PostPosted: Fri Jun 29, 2007 7:48 am    Post subject: OTTAWA - Council approves hybrid bus purchase Reply with quote

Council approves hybrid bus purchase

Transit committee had wanted more study

Jake Rupert, The Ottawa Citizen

After five years and three studies recommending OC Transpo short-haul buses be powered by hybrid diesel-electric technology in the future instead of natural gas, city council finally agreed to do it Thursday.

Since 2002, city staff have recommended switching to diesel-electric buses for local routes, a study by the National Research Council backed up the recommendation, and a recent independent comparison by a consultant, which cost $300,000, concluded the same thing.

Despite this, council has been wrestling with what technology to use to power its buses since a consortium of natural gas companies submitted an unsolicited report to the city in 2005 saying using their fuel would save the city $36 million in the next few years.

Since then, the companies have been lobbying city officials, both elected and bureaucrats.
Last week, the companies made a presentation to the city's transit committee on the day councillors on the committee were to deal with the issue.

At that meeting, and several times again Thursday, deputy city manager of public works Richard Hewitt told councillors diesel-electric is clearly the way to go and that most other cities in North America were making this choice.

He presented several arguments: Converting a planned garage to accommodate natural gas would cost about $9 million; the natural gas option wouldn't save any money because of retrofitting costs; the diesel-electric buses are as clean as the natural gas buses; and OC Transpo needs to order the buses now to have them by 2009, when the buses they are to replace are to be taken out of service and run on new routes.

OC Transpo chief Alain Mercier also said there are safety concerns with natural gas buses.
Despite this, councillors on the committee thought the issue needed more study and asked for another report.

However, after three hours of debate and questioning of staff Thursday, city council voted to buy diesel-electric buses by a vote of 12 to 10.

For Capital Councillor Clive Doucet, the only problem with the move is it didn't come two years ago.

"If we had passed this two years ago, we would have saved hundreds of thousands of dollars, and these buses would already be on the road," he said. "It's cheaper, safer, and less polluting."

City staff will now seek bids for 225 of the hybrid buses from companies that make them. They are to enter the fleet in 2009. Council also approved buying three double-decker buses to use in an extended study to see whether they should become a major part of OC Transpo's fleet.
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