Wellington.Scoop

Electric buses next year? There was nothing about this in either of last week’s announcements about changes to bus contracts. But we did get this message in two comments sent to Wellington.Scoop from Regional Council chair Chris Laidlaw.

Here’s what he wrote on Friday:

Tranzit’s bid means a guarantee of a very substantial reduction of gross emissions in the short run, even with the withdrawal of the trolleybuses, and a commitment to the introduction of full electric buses beginning next year. That is why they are the preferred tender. It’s as simple as that.

And on the same day:

We are very impressed with Tranzit’s credentials not the least of which is their commitment to introducing full electric buses next year to coincide with the introduction of new routes and integrated ticketing.

We’ve since asked him to provide evidence of a decision to introduce electric buses next year. But as yet there’s been no reply.

When you look at last week’s announcements about new bus contracts, the Tranzit plan is described as building 228 new buses, all of them diesel though with Euro 6 certification, the highest global emissions standard. But not a word about electric buses. The Regional Council statement does mention the “electric” word, but not as anything definite:

Cr Laidlaw said we are likely to see the introduction of electric buses to Wellington city, further improving environmental benefits.

When? How? There’s no information.

Then there’s the mystery of the hybrid WrightSpeed engines, which we had been told would be installed in the trolley buses when they were taken out of service next month. But something is amiss. The trolley bus scrapping has been delayed for six months. NZ Bus chief executive Zane Fulljames is saying his company hasn’t yet decided whether to buy the hybrids – it will decide during the testing process (which was supposed to have started last October.)

In the DomPost, Chris Laidlaw said that diesel buses were a likely solution in the interim period, and the extension would provide “a bit more breathing space.” (An unfortunate choice of words, in the context of diesel fumes.) But there was no certainty about the hydrid buses. “All of us are awaiting the outcome of the testing with some interest. I hope it’s successful.”

The (vague) official version is that “development and testing continues by NZ Bus on the development of a plug-in range extended electric bus that will re-use and refurbish the trolley bus fleet.”

But Keith Flinders says

Wrightspeed is hybrid technology and after 12 months since the first trolley bus conversion started it hasn’t been on trial yet. One might conclude that the GWRC is being misled on the suitability for this technology given Wellington’s terrain, and alas GWRC officers don’t have the engineering knowledge to decide either way.

And on Saturday, a reader called Casey told us

Unconfirmed reports have the first conversion, started 12 months ago, as having been abandoned, and the second conversion not completed either. If you thought the Tranzit bus going up Ngauranga Gorge was slow, then I shudder to think of the speed of a Wrightspeed trying to get up Bowen Street on its 40 kW/hr battery.

And later

the incomplete Wrightspeed is in a shed in Newlands, as is the second attempt to get a bus operational and at last report wasn’t.

Then yesterday:

No single deck battery buses let alone double deckers have been tested in Wellington’s environment. There will… https://t.co/RQmpdmHm6r — Paul Bruce (@paulebruce) May 8, 2017

And today, from Brent Efford:

When two trolleybuses were taken out of service for Wrightspeed conversion last year, we were told that the prototype conversions would be on the road for testing LAST November! So how Wayne Hastie, one of the GWRC’s top spinners, can claim they are “running to schedule” beats me. They don’t seem to be running at all, and the evasion – “you will have to ask NZ Bus about that” by Mr Wright, when questioned about progress at his promotional presentation at the car show at Queens Wharf recently – only heightens the suspicions. Particularly when he refused to answer any follow-up questions.

When the Wrightspeed deal was announced a year ago, it was described as something definite, with no ifs or buts.

NZ Bus will receive its first Wrightspeed powertrains by mid-2016, and begin the process of fitting and testing immediately, with a view to having a first electric-powered bus on the road by the last quarter of the year.

It didn’t happen.

It’s time for NZ Bus and the Regional Council to stop being evasive, and to tell us what’s going on (or not) with the new technology.