Globe and Mail
TTC saddled with bad buses
More hybrid vehicles to come despite failing batteries, meagre fuel savings
JEFF GRAY
October 23, 2008
Those new - and expensive - hybrid buses on Toronto's roads have turned out to be unreliable lemons, with failing batteries and lacklustre fuel savings, so the city's transit agency is now recommending buying only "clean diesel" vehicles after 2010.
However, TTC officials say they are still on the hook to accept another 130 premium-priced hybrid buses next year. These vehicles are to be outfitted with new lithium-ion batteries, which the transit agency and the manufacturer, Daimler Buses North America, hope will work better than the current lead-acid ones.
The nine city councillors who oversee the Toronto Transit Commission are expected today to vote to scrap a plan, just approved in late August, to buy 120 more hybrids - which cost $734,000 each compared to $500,000 for a conventional bus - in 2010. Instead, TTC managers are recommending buying 120 of Daimler's "clean diesel" conventional-engine low-floor buses, which they say will save it $24-million.
In May, The Globe reported that a third of the rooftop lead-acid battery cells in use in the current fleet of 275 hybrids, which started arriving in 2006, had already worn out despite a promised four-year lifespan.
Now TTC staff say the battery problem has escalated, with as many as 140 batteries failing every week, conking out after just 18 months. This has forced buses off crowded routes and into the shop for maintenance, although TTC officials insist service has not yet suffered. There are also concerns about the buses' drive system. (Daimler has covered the maintenance costs, as the buses are still under warranty.)
TTC chairman Adam Giambrone said the transit agency would likely not have bought the more expensive hybrids - of which it will have nearly 700 in its 1,700-strong fleet by the end of next year - if it hadn't been a condition of receiving $300-million in federal funding.
He also said the TTC had sought to negotiate a way out of its contract for the 130 hybrids due to arrive in 2009, but he did not know if any progress had been made. TTC spokesman Brad Ross said yesterday the transit agency could not get out of its contract without paying penalties to Daimler.
While Mr. Giambrone said the TTC would consider hybrids again once the kinks have been worked out, TTC vice-chairman Joe Mihevc said the "clean diesel" engines the TTC now wants to buy instead are much cleaner than its old pollution-belching diesel buses.
"The incremental environmental benefit is not as great as anticipated and just might not be worth the cost," he said.
The battery failures come on top of TTC testing that has shown the buses are producing only half the expected fuel savings, using 10 per cent less diesel than a conventional bus instead of the 20 to 30 per cent less diesel that was originally promised, based on the experience with hybrids in New York. The TTC blames the lacklustre numbers on the fact that it has more suburban high-speed routes, where hybrid engines make less of a difference.
City Councillor Michael Walker (Ward 22, St. Paul's), said in an interview that the councillors on the commission should resign, that the TTC officials that approved the bus purchase and the contract should be fired and that the TTC should refuse to accept any more hybrid buses from Daimler, despite its contract.
"This is a huge error," Mr. Walker said. "Why would you carry on buying a flawed product? ... You reward that?"
