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TTC: Electric and alternative fuel buses

There is this media called "books", where information is printed on paper pages fastened along one side and encased between protective covers. There is one such "book" called:

Tires and Wires - The story of electric trolley coaches serving sixteen Canadian cities

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From link.

Tires and Wires is a comprehensive history of electric trolley coach operations in sixteen Canadian cities. Starting with some early dabbling in the embryonic technology of a rubber-tired electric bus, transit operators of the 1930s and 1940s turned to these quiet, powerful and efficient vehicles to replace their worn-out streetcar systems.

Tires and Wires is published jointly by Canadian Transit Heritage Foundation and Railfare*DC Books, which has produced many high quality historical Canadian railway and transit system publications. The author, Tom Schwarzkopf, is co-author of Edmonton’s Electric Transit and Calgary’s Electric Transit, as well as other rail and transit publications.

Highlights:
  • 272 pages, more than 200 superb photos and illustrations (54 in colour), and 22 maps
  • A chapter for each city’s system, including overhead wire maps
  • Complete system trolley coach rosters, with vehicle illustrations and preserved equipment data
  • A description of all nine trolley coach manufacturers
Book size: 8” x 10.5”.
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Officially, from this link:

The first TTC all-electric bus is on the road

June 3, 2019

Today, TTC Chair Jaye Robinson and Mayor John Tory joined Marco Mendicino, Member of Parliament for Eglinton-Lawrence and Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Infrastructure and Communities to launch the first of the TTC’s all-electric buses into service on the 35 Jane route.

The bus, manufactured by New Flyer Industries Inc., arrived in Toronto in April and has since undergone testing and commissioning as well as operator training. It is the first of 60 electric buses the TTC will have by the first quarter of 2020, making up one of the largest mini-fleets of electric buses in North America.

In addition to New Flyer, the TTC is also procuring electric buses from Proterra Inc. and BYD Canada Co. Ltd., allowing the TTC to inform future procurement through a head-to-head evaluation.

The electrification of vehicles is a key component of the City's TransformTO climate action strategy, which targets an 80 per cent reduction in local greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. To meet that target, 100 per cent of vehicles in Toronto must transition to low-carbon energy by 2050. The electrification of buses is an example of the City's commitment to lead by example. Vehicles generate about one-third of the emissions in Toronto today.

The TTC’s new eBuses operate on truly green propulsion technology with zero tailpipe emissions. In Ontario, generation of electricity for overnight charging is 100% nuclear and completely free of GHG emissions.

The Government of Canada and the City of Toronto are investing $140 million in these electric buses as part of the federal Public Transit Infrastructure Fund (PTIF). This fund is helping keep Torontonians moving through investments in the repair, modernization and expansion of the city’s transit and active transportation networks. In total, up to $1.8 billion is being invested in Toronto through PTIF, which was launched on August 23, 2016.

For more information on the TTC’s green initiatives, please visit ttc.ca/green.

Quotes

“Investing in urban public transit is essential to ensuring people can spend less time in traffic and more time with their families. The new zero-emission electric buses will provide reliable service for transit users on the 35 Jane route and reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the Jane and Finch community for years to come.”
- Marco Mendicino, Parliamentary Secretary to the Honourable François-Philippe Champagne, Minister of Infrastructure and Communities

“Our city is continuously looking at ways to reduce our carbon emissions, introducing electric buses to our robust fleet is one of the many ways we are advancing the TTC and demonstrating our leadership in becoming an environmentally friendly city.”
- Toronto Mayor John Tory.

“This is an example of how we are modernizing our service, innovating for the long-term and planning for climate change. The TTC will continue to prioritize network-wide service improvements as we work towards a 100% zero emissions fleet by 2040."
- TTC Chair Jaye Robinson
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Unofficially, they are "All-Battery Electric" buses. The TTC had trolley buses before.

From link.

The Way We Were: Toronto's real first electric buses

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On June 19, 1922, Torontonians got their very first look at the latest in public transit vehicles when the one-year-old Toronto Transportation Commission placed four of its newly-arrived electric trolley buses on the Mount Pleasant route that had heretofore been served by gasoline-powered buses. With this improvement in public transportation, the north Toronto community served by these new buses grew quickly — so much so, that three years later, the Commission decided to replace the 30-seat trolley buses with larger electric streetcars. To accommodate the local population and the resulting increase in transit ridership the original trolley bus route, by which the buses had connected Eglinton Ave. with the Toronto and York Radial Railway stop at Merton and Yonge Sts. via Mt. Pleasant Rd. and Merton St., was expanded. In this 1922 photo from the TTC Archives, trolley bus #1 is shown southbound on Mt. Pleasant Rd. approaching Davisville Ave. That cyclist would have to wait and wait and wait for dedicated bicycle lanes. On Nov. 3, 1925, streetcars on the St. Clair route began operating from the route’s existing eastern loop at the northeast corner of the St. Clair and Mt. Pleasant intersection north on Mt. Pleasant Rd. to a loop at Eglinton Ave. When the bridge on Mt. Pleasant Rd. south of Merton that carried traffic over the old Belt Line railway right-of-way was replaced in 1976 so too were the streetcars…by trolley buses. On July 16, 1993, all trolley bus operations throughout the city (with the Bay route being the last) came to an end.
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For many of us, media reports and their related headlines are usually quick, concise accounts that skim the surface of a breaking news story.

Often, these reports give one just enough information to get on with their day. Sometimes they make one sit up and take notice, because what they have just reported is actually wrong, or to be more generous, not exactly true.

For anyone interested in the history of public transportation in our city, the recent newspaper headline “TTC to buy first electric buses” was, in a word, wrong. Actually, that headline would have been fine had whoever put those six words together simply left out the word, “first.” Or simply added the phrase, “self -contained” so that the headline would read “TTC to buy first self-contained electric buses.”
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sun-november-19-ttc-lansdowne-trolleybuses-9001-9002-june2c-1947.jpg


Following the end of the Second World War, the TTC looked to convert some of its streetcar routes to trolley bus operation. To do so, the commission decided to try a new, modern trolley bus that was being built by Canadian Car and Foundry in its Fort William (now part of Thunder Bay) factory. Iâm advised that some of CC&Fâs buildings are now being used for the assembly of the TTCâs new Bombardier streetcars. On June 19, 1947, TTC patrons rode the first of these new buses on the converted Lansdowne streetcar route both ways on Lansdowne Ave. from a loop at St. Clair to an on-street loop that used Queen, Macdonnell and Seaforth Aves. In this photo, two CC&F trolley buses pass at the Lansdowne and Seaforth intersection with the old Parkdale Public School now (Parkdale Junior and Senior Public School) in the background. Other trolley bus routes followed and by 1954, the year Torontoâs first subway, the Yonge line, opened there were more than 100 of this unique type of vehicle operating over a total of six routes (Lansdowne â commenced 1947, Annette â1947, Ossington â1947, Weston â1948, Nortown â1954 and Yonge â1954. For more details about Torontoâs first âelectric busesâ (as well as other Toronto transportation stories) visit the Transit Toronto website at: transit.toronto.on.ca.
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Having read this far, you may say to yourself, “who cares?” As a local history nerd/geek/bore, I, for one, do. That’s because the TTC actually purchased its very first electric bus back in 1922, albeit powered by electricity drawn from overhead wires.

Unlike electric streetcars that have one trolley pole and steel wheels and rails to complete the electrical circuit, trolley buses — such as the one in the 1922 photo — required two wires and two trolley poles to complete the circuit, since it was running on rubber tires. To be fair, once you get into the body of the recently released media report, the author does explain what the commission really has in mind — and that is to purchase transit buses with an “on-board” power source in the form of rechargeable batteries.

Thus, no trolley poles or overhead wires are needed. That’s an important difference. However, the incomplete headline heading up the media report did accomplish one thing. It allows me to relate the story behind the TTC’s initial attempts to operate a fleet of electric buses, an attempt that began nearly a century ago
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The TTC's Proterra buses are currently being delivered to Mount Dennis division. One notable feature is all-perimeter seating (except for across the rear door) in the low floor section. They also have door buttons on the outside and inside.
 
wmedia said:
The Proterra Catalyst is definitely a looker. Just stumbled across this video of someone taking a ride on 6 Bay:

TTC Proterra Catalyst BE40 3726 On 6 Bay
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Either the camera is picking up the noise of the electric motor really well or these Proterra buses seem a bit louder than the New Flyer electric buses also in service.

Additionally they will now have the small engine on board running for heat this time of year.
 
Kraylin said:
Either the camera is picking up the noise of the electric motor really well or these Proterra buses seem a bit louder than the New Flyer electric buses also in service.
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Not the motor, but rather the gearbox. But yes, the Proterra's seem to be a tad noisier than the New Flyers.

Kraylin said:
Additionally they will now have the small engine on board running for heat this time of year.
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Not an engine, but rather a simple diesel burner. It won't make much noise outside the vehicle, although the additional fans pushing the air through it will make more noise inside.

Dan
 
Reecemartin said:
*Video I made on the NFI Electric Buses*

Battery Electric buses are definitely the future and we wish they got more press coverage. We took a ride on the TTCs Electric bus from New Flyer and we talk all about it in our latest video! If you enjoy consider subscribing!
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I rented two of these for my wedding a couple months back, and they were the (secondary?) stars of the show. Guests loved them.
 
And dare i say that the A/C systems on the e-buses (at least with the XDE40s) actually function better cooling wise compared to the joke of a system used on our diesel and hybrid-electric Novas.
 
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