Editor: The city of Windsor, Ont. is becoming the first city in North America to put long-range, all-electric transit buses on its roads. Congratulations are due to them for doing this.
It’s a great thing to see it happening. However, I would have thought that an eco-friendly transit first like this would have happened right here in B.C.
In B.C., all-electric buses would be powered almost exclusively by electricity from clean, renewable hydro and wind sources. Not so in Ontario, where they’re struggling to wean themselves off coal-fired electricity.
Don’t get me wrong. When cleaner natural gas buses replaced many of the dirty diesel buses on our roads a number of years ago it was a welcome step in the direction of improving our air quality and reducing pollution. But now that long-range, all-electric buses (free from overhead trolley wires) are becoming a reality, wouldn’t they be a great addition to B.C.’s transit bus fleet?
Marney Hogan,
Langley
Editor’s note — TransLink operates the only fleet of electric trolley buses in Canada, with 262 electric buses operating in Vancouver and Burnaby. Electric buses have operated continuously in the Vancouver region since 1948.
