Winnipeg Transit is scheduled to put a third electric bus into service this week as part of a plan announced over a year ago to add four battery-operated buses to its fleet. The question is, what’s taking so long to expand this proven technology if there’s such an urgency to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions?

Transit has been running two electric buses on route No. 20 — which starts at James Armstrong Richardson International Airport, runs through city centre, East Kildonan and back to the airport — for about a year now. And so far, the results have been spectacular, including reliable performance, very little maintenance, lower energy costs and, of course, zero carbon emissions, the whole point of the exercise.

“I was expecting them to be a lot more problematic, but it really hasn’t been the case,” said Tony Dreolini, Winnipeg Transit’s manager of plant and equipment. “They’re exceeding my expectations in terms of performance.”

Barring a few glitches, including some problems with the charging station at the airport — which bus maker New Flyer Industries resolved over the summer — the battery-powered buses have been running just like any other diesel bus, only without the plumes of black smoke spewing from the tailpipe.

In fact, they’ve been running more reliably than most new diesel buses, which have been breaking down so often — due to more stringent emissions-control systems — Transit was forced to reduce its peak-period bus service in September. Full service has since been restored, but it may not last.

Emissions-control standards for diesel buses are much higher than they were 10 years ago and the newer technology is far more difficult to maintain, said Dreolini.

“Emissions-control systems on diesels have now gotten to be very complex, very challenging in terms of reliability and the amount of work that goes into them,” he said. “There’s a lot more to go wrong and it’s more complicated to keep running.”

Electric buses, by contrast, are relatively simple. They’re powered by an electric motor, have a simple power train with no transmission and run entirely on rechargeable batteries. They can run up to five hours without a charge and only take 10 to 15 minutes to recharge.

“I think in the long run, there’s a good chance that electric buses will present advantages in terms of reliability and ongoing maintenance costs,” said Dreolini.

They’re more expensive to buy than diesel buses. (There is no set price yet, but ballpark estimates are in the range of $1 million per bus compared to $400,000 to $500,000 for a diesel bus.) But they run on a third the cost of diesel, or less.

So what’s the holdup? Why are they planning to add only four buses to a fleet of over 600?

Part of the delay is the city is locked into a four-year pilot project with New Flyer and other partners, including the province. The plan was to put four electric buses on the road to see how they perform over four years.

But it’s pretty obvious the technology works. And there’s really nothing stopping the city and the province from ordering more electric buses now to start the process of phasing out diesel.

Instead, the city and province announced a task force last week to “study” electrifying the entire fleet. Well, you can’t electrify the entire fleet overnight. Transit still has an order of 58 diesel buses coming in January. But what government could do is start ordering more electric buses now.

“Theoretically, it would be possible to add (electric) buses even to that one route,” said Dreolini. “If you redesigned your routes you may be able to run other routes through that same area.”

So it can be done. But instead of action, we get more studies.

tom.brodbeck@sunmedia.ca

Twitter: @tombrodbeck