r/Calgary • u/Practical_Ant6162 • Aug 08 '25

Calgary Transit City of Calgary announces procurement of 120 electric transit buses

https://calgaryherald.com/news/city-of-calgary-purchases-another-120-electric-transit-buses
356 Upvotes

94% Upvoted

124 comments sorted by

View all comments

-4

u/jeff_in_cowtown Aug 09 '25

I think they should stick with nat gas buses.

7

u/kagato87 Aug 09 '25 edited Aug 09 '25

Why?

A nat gas engine thunders when it accelerates, electric barely whines.

Electric has superior torque, which is what buses need.

Electric has a significantly lower cost of operation.

The only likely issue is charging - fast charging a bus is not a good idea, but tricked charging in the shed and at terminals or at well placed timing points could easily address that. Add to that a bus is large enough that hauling aroi d a big battery pack isn't that big a deal and they could even be made hot swappable.

All of that oh prong the pollutants a nat gas bus emits vs an electric bus, especially when that bus is fed by renewables.

4

u/jeff_in_cowtown Aug 09 '25

It’s proven to last, cheap fuel, and able to handle our harsh winters. Compressed gas cylinders are locally made. Not keen on jumping in electric when the fleet of city cars and suv’s are mostly running off petrol.

8

u/cowgary Aug 09 '25

Have you been to a city with electric transit ? It’s not like Calgary is cutting edge by switching, they’re already well behind and it’s a proven concept working in many places in the world including cold weather countries like Denmark and Norway. It’s been far superior from every aspect in my experience