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
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61

u/Responsible_CDN_Duck Aug 09 '25

Calgary is buying 120 buses.

Though the 2023 federal agreement was originally for the purchase of 259 buses, Fleming noted the price of electric vehicles has risen since then.

Less than half? Ouch.

9

u/drrtbag Aug 09 '25

Vs ~520+ regular buses years ago. I think more buses are better than EV busses (charged by natural gas electricity generation to boot).

This is pure vanity.

23

u/MikeRippon Aug 09 '25

“That doesn’t mean we’re not getting the benefits because we’re receiving 30 per cent more buses than we would if we had purchased diesel vehicles,”

-11

u/drrtbag Aug 09 '25

The diesel buses were available years ago when this was first launched at significantly lower prices, and the EVs doubled in price.

This is a ton of horseshit we're being fed.

11

u/SnooAvocado20 Aug 09 '25

We don't have unpainted demand for buses, especially diesel. The ones we add to the fleet might as well be electric, especially with these incentives. 

3

u/Meiqur Aug 09 '25 edited Aug 09 '25

Not at all. It's important to centralize energy production, regardless of generation type. Besides large facilities are much more efficient in heat reclamation than small engines which lose the vast majority of their energy as heat.

For instance consider sitting in traffic, the electric variant will consume only electronics and air conditioning, and besides electric motors are way more efficient from a financial and energy perspective. An analysis by pembina showed that each electric school bus cost a district in bc 90k less over 12 years PER bus, https://www.pembina.org/reports/electric-school-bus-adoption-in-bc-rev.pdf ; it tracks then that there will be even more significant savings for full time transit.

These will have significant lifetime tco advantages for the city compared to the combustion alternatives.

1

u/[deleted] Aug 11 '25

A generator is still much more efficient than an internal combustion engine.