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“Electric buses are essentially at the cusp of readiness,” the report says. “Their already lower operating costs (fuel and maintenance), combined with anticipated future capital cost reductions, suggests the longer-term advantage is toward electric buses.”

The report, entitled The Future is Ahead of You: Battery-Electric Bus Zero Emissions, was completed in July 2016. That was several months after the Pallister government took office and about eight months after former premier Greg Selinger and Mayor Brian Bowman announced the creation of the task force. But for reasons that remain unclear, the report was never released publicly.

The task force, made up of representatives from six stakeholder groups including the city, the province, Manitoba Hydro, New Flyer Industries and Red River College, not only confirmed electric bus technology works effectively in sometimes harsh climates like Winnipeg’s, it laid out a three-step plan on how to integrate battery-powered buses into Transit’s fleet.

One of the main findings of the report is that electric bus technology is not itself a barrier to fully electrifying Transit. The challenge is how to integrate electric buses into a transit system designed around diesel buses, the task force found.

Diesel buses can travel up to 22 hours a day and are used whenever and wherever they’re needed, with easy refueling. And they can switch seamlessly between routes at any time to help keep scheduling on time. Electric buses, which need to be recharged, aren’t as flexible. New battery-powered buses have a range of about 325 kilometers, which is expected to grow to about 500 kilometers by 2019, according to New Flyer Industries which built the four electric buses still in use in Winnipeg. But they still need to be recharged at some point. Which means there’s more planning involved than there is for diesel buses, including where and how many recharging stations are required.