

Codi Wilson , CP24.com





The TTC’s first fully electric bus is now in service in the city.

The transit agency says starting today, the bus will be running along the 35 Jane route.

In a news release issued Monday, the city said the bus, which was manufactured by New Flyer Industries Inc., is one of 60 electric buses it will acquire by the first quarter of 2020.

The city will be testing out buses from New Flyer, Proterra Inc. and BYD Canada Co. Ltd. to see which vehicles are preferred.

"I think we have been very strategic about this purchase and very thoughtful about it and really did our due diligence," Coun. Jaye Robinson, chair of the TTC, told CP24.

"The three companies really are in a sense competing and what we did is we purchased them in small batches versus a big batch so they can actually deliver the buses and we can get them out on the streets of Toronto."

By 2025, the TTC says it hopes to purchase only electric buses going forward and the goal is to have electric vehicles replace every bus in the fleet by 2040.

"I think the public expects us to try them out and make sure they work well. We would be heavily criticize if in trying to move up that target… we made hasty purchases of transit equipment that didn’t work," Mayor John Tory said at a news conference on Monday.

About $140 million is being provided for the vehicles by the federal government through the Public Transit Infrastructure Fund.

Tory said the benefit of finding more energy efficient ways to improve the city is two-fold.

"The building retrofits that we will do at Toronto Community Housing and elsewhere… the replacement of our fleet on the TTC with things like electric buses are going to not just make the city greener and meet our climate change goals, but also save money," Tory said while riding the bus during its inaugural trip.

Replacing the TTC’s fleet with fully electric buses is expected to save about $70 million to $80 million in fuel costs annually.