TTC Electric Buses

[Xtrazsteve]

5 hours ago, MK78 said:

Been waiting for this... Looks like these electric buses have a long way to go to match the Nova HEV's reliability & performance.

I think they need major improvement before buying the 300 eBuses in 2023, hopefully the Nova eBus will be much better.

Any eBus would be worst than HEVs in this generation. They won't know exactly how much energy consumption variation between seasons till they actually test a Nova eBus. They might able to predict based on the HEV performance since they seem to be quite similar. 

[MK78]

Makes me wonder why they are so desperate to get that many in 2023 where the technology still needs a long way to go.

Maybe in 2025, and in the mean time just get the HEV's and wait, and continue to test new versions  in smaller batches.

[2044]

It took over a decade to go from the TTC’s first hybrid buses (which they had enough problems that they stopped buying) to the fleet of their LFS HEVs today. Development of the HybriDrive system goes all the way back to the late 90s.

I guess it’s hard to predict how viable a fleet of 300 battery-electric buses will be in a couple of years.

[wil9402]

One thing I found that might be of interest to some from the TTC Board meeting today regarding the eBuses. It seems like they plan to spread out the 300 eBus order among all 8 garages. The Staff Presentation for TTC-OPG-Toronto Hydro Framework for Agreement report shows the garage electrification schedule (slide 3). By 2025 when the last buses of the order arrive, every garage should have enough charging stations for about 40 or so eBuses. 

[Xtrazsteve]

19 minutes ago, wil9402 said:

One thing I found that might be of interest to some from the TTC Board meeting today regarding the eBuses. It seems like they plan to spread out the 300 eBus order among all 8 garages. The Staff Presentation for TTC-OPG-Toronto Hydro Framework for Agreement report shows the garage electrification schedule (slide 3). By 2025 when the last buses of the order arrive, every garage should have enough charging stations for about 40 or so eBuses. 

It makes sense since every garage would have those perfect runs that works well run ebuses wouldn’t haven’t to rewrite the schedule. It’ll also take significant upgrade to convert one garage to ebus only at they draw too much power. So this small batch at every garage approach would be easier to implement than full scale at one garage. At least they can defer the tractor power station to further years which TTC loves doing.

[AnalogPentium]

The Xcelsiors may (not will) be pulled from service at some point since I noticed a recall regarding the firmware used by the Siemens ELFA2 inverters went out recently by New Flyer. I haven't seen anything listed by Transport Canada yet though, but I'd assume such a defect would affect the TTC units.

[Young]

6 minutes ago, AnalogPentium said:

The Xcelsiors may (not will) be pulled from service at some point since I noticed a recall regarding the firmware used by the Siemens ELFA2 inverters went out recently by New Flyer. I haven't seen anything listed by Transport Canada yet though, but I'd assume such a defect would affect the TTC units.

I don’t think it’ll affect the TTC units since they were built in Winnipeg Canada and this recall is for the US versions

[AnalogPentium]

2 minutes ago, Young said:

I don’t think it’ll affect the TTC units since they were built in Winnipeg Canada and this recall is for the US versions

Ah got you. Thought it may still be relevant because of the inverters.

 

EDIT: Didn't look hard enough with Transport Canada oops

[Young]

14 minutes ago, AnalogPentium said:

Ah got you. Thought it may still be relevant because of the inverters.

 

EDIT: Didn't look hard enough with Transport Canada oops

The article says only 78 units are affected but I don’t know if the 25 TTC has is apart of the 78

[AnalogPentium]

1 hour ago, Young said:

The article says only 78 units are affected but I don’t know if the 25 TTC has is apart of the 78

We'll have to wait and see I guess. Just brought it up since it had relevance

[West Island Transit Fan]

Spotted 3736, 3737, 3742, and 3744 on the 501. First time I've seen a Proterra on this route in the 4 months I've lived here.

[FabianColeyLOVESBUSES]

3738 and 3742 are on the route 927. Is this the first time the Proterras are on this route since Mount Dennis took it over?

[Mar_AC_23]

44 minutes ago, FabianColeyLOVESBUSES said:

3738 and 3742 are on the route 927. Is this the first time the Proterras are on this route since Mount Dennis took it over?

Nope not the first time. On Monday morning 3735 was on the 927 15 run, and 2 proterras ran on the 927 on Tuesday morning.

[Mar_AC_23]

3759 is out on an all day run. 34_19_190

[bus_7246]

3753 is in a lot visible from the Scarborough RT line (line 3 for the picky lot), between Lawrence East and Ellesmere Stns. There’s no need to go off if this has been mentioned earlier 

[7749]

13 minutes ago, bus_7246 said:

3753 is in a lot visible from the Scarborough RT line (line 3 for the picky lot), between Lawrence East and Ellesmere Stns. There’s no need to go off if this has been mentioned earlier 

They park BYD's there from time to time, when they were first delivered, I believe a few were kept in that area. Not sure why

[Bus_Medic]

1 hour ago, 7749 said:

They park BYD's there from time to time, when they were first delivered, I believe a few were kept in that area. Not sure why

There’s a warranty vendor there.

http://bdsfleet.com/

[Cimon8000]

On 5/14/2021 at 6:30 PM, Bus_Medic said:

There’s a warranty vendor there.

http://bdsfleet.com/

3758 was here for about 2 month before as well.

[buschic]

On 4/8/2021 at 6:33 PM, 2044 said:

TTC’s Green Bus Program: Preliminary Results of TTC’s Head-to-Head eBus Evaluation

I did a deputation on this topic at the commission meeting.

I mentioned several safety & accessibility issues with the Proterras, the way the wheelchair spaces are designed, it’s literally an afterthought.

[bus_7246]

I think the Proterra BE40s are suffering a bad spell right now. 6 were parked in the north field this morning while another handful were scattered around the property at 6:50am (when most of service has been dispatched and sent out)

[bus_7246]

9 hours ago, bus_7246 said:

I think the Proterra BE40s are suffering a bad spell right now. 6 were parked in the north field this morning while another handful were scattered around the property at 6:50am (when most of service has been dispatched and sent out)

Update: there were at least 9 or more beached whale potatoes in the north field this afternoon. Have they temporarily become rotten?

[Cimon8000]

4 hours ago, bus_7246 said:

Update: there were at least 9 or more beached whale potatoes in the north field this afternoon. Have they temporarily become rotten?

Not a surprise, only 5 or 6 of them were out during rush hour recently.  More BYDs are in service recently than Proterras which I can see there must be some issues or warranty work going on with them.  I am wondering if it has anything to do with the cracked window frames according to the TTC's in house preliminary evaluation results?

[Mar_AC_23]

3758 is finally heading out on its first revenue run on the 54

[Mar_AC_23]

The BYDs are heading out on longer runs this week and there are currently 6 of them in service on all day runs.

[leylandvictory2]

On 5/15/2021 at 10:48 PM, buschic said:

I did a deputation on this topic at the commission meeting.

I mentioned several safety & accessibility issues with the Proterras, the way the wheelchair spaces are designed, it’s literally an afterthought.

I never seen the proterra, byd is equally if not worse.  Drivers are reminded to check the metal hooks beneath the bench seats (lack of space inside the buses) during the circle check.  they must be folded back in or they will create tripping hazzard.  

 

I did see at least a proterra at Jet shop the other day when I was doing Warden.