Philadelphia’s electric transit buses are in a “complete shambles” as a result of poor design and poor quality construction. The buses, which were proudly displayed at the 2016 National Democratic Convention, have broken frames, broken batteries, and other problems, and have been totally withdrawn from service.
Proterra electric buses similar to this one were withdrawn from service in Philadelphia as the weight of the batteries led to cracked frames and the battery range turned out to be significantly less than the manufacturer promised. Photo by SounderBruce.
Although transit advocates like to claim that transit is environmentally friendly, a dirty secret of the transit industry is that buses use 50 percent more energy and emitted 50 percent more greenhouse gases per passenger mile than the average car. That’s based on 2019 data; in 2020, the numbers will be much worse.
Transit agencies had hoped to overcome this problem before too many people become aware of it by electrifying their bus fleets. The Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority is only the latest of transit agencies who have discovered that electric buses don’t work as well as promised. As noted by NPR, Indianapolis, Albuquerque, and Duluth have all mothballed their electric buses or returned them to the manufacturers due to range and other problems.
Update: The day after I posted this, reports indicate that Foothill Transit, which operates buses in Los Angeles suburbs, is considering mothballing its fleet of battery-powered buses due to fires and other problems. The agency says that replacement parts for the buses are expensive and difficult to obtain with the result that some have been out of service for nearly a year.
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At close to a million dollars apiece, battery-powered buses cost almost exactly twice as much as Diesel buses. It so happens that the federal government will pay 80 percent of the cost of a Diesel bus but 90 percent of the cost of an electric bus, so for the transit agency, the cost of the two is identical.
Unfortunately, this means that when transit agencies buy electric buses, there is only enough total money for half as many buses, and thus there will be less bus service in the long run. This is ignored because in a politicized industry like transit getting media attention for buying electric buses is more important than actually moving people around.
If transit agencies really wanted to reduce their environmental footprints, they should buy smaller buses. They don’t come close to filling the buses they have: the standard 64-passenger (with standees) transit bus carried an average of just 9 passengers in 2019, a number that will probably fall below 5 in 2020. That means if you drive alone in your seven-passenger Lincoln Navigator or Cadillac Escalade, you will have the same or higher occupancy rate as the average transit bus.
Of course, buses might carry more people during rush hours, but the solution is to run smaller buses more frequently during rush hours and then taper frequencies back during other hours of the day. The result is better service to transit riders and less energy wasted moving empty seats around. But since bus fares only cover 18 percent of the costs of bus services, transit agencies don’t really care whether they provide better service.
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Mr. O’Toole,
I was about to say “isn’t this the same type of electric bus used by King County for testing?”, then I realized these actually ARE the King County buses.
Interesting note that may or may not mean anything. I used to see the electric test bus doing a regular route up in Bellevue by Crossroads Mall, but I haven’t seen it in a while now.
Btw, wow! I just read on Wikipedia that the buses SEPTA removed from service for cracks have a PLASTIC chassis! I wonder if that’s fiber reinforced, or just straight up plastic like in a radio control model.
To make buses energy efficient they have to be light, to be light hey have to have less mass dedicated to stuctural membranes and beams. A 40 foot long bus is quite heavy weighing in at 12-20 tons. An electric bus, much like an electric car does Everything possible to shave weight because the battery accounts for 1/3 of the weight. An EV bus Still weighs 24+ tons because of that battery. The result; a bus with a flexing, shaky frame and that frame shake adds huge jostling, wear on the battery. The automotive industry knew that decades ago and spent a lot of time and money making it’s vehicles with fully boxed frames and greater stiffness and rigidity. Rigid frame and good suspension shaves wear and tear off of parts…………
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IY_XMemqY18
As I’ve said before “Mini buses” are far more practical, because they’re based on automobile tech that’s easier to service. Engine technology with far greater circulation is easier and cheaper to maintain than engines built for large commercial vehicles. A cummins or caterpillar, detroit diesel engine is far more problematic than say a ford duratec engine which any mechanic can look at.
– Ford Transit
– Buses based on SuperDuty chassis
– Large capcity vans.
These vehicles are not as attractive or sexy as buses, but they work. Because they’re small they are nimble, fit on city streets better, have better turning radius, better stopping distances and longer frame life expectancy. And because they’re cheaper, they’re easier to replace and liquidate.
In other news, California’s latest money spending debacle attributed to political ineptitude. The governor and Caltrans launched the “Clean California” program to get trash off it’s highways. Veterans, at-risk youth, people who were formerly homeless and people who were formerly incarcerated will be given priority for the jobs created by the three-year program.
California has 396,000 lane miles of highway. with average width of 4 lanes, that’s 99,000 miles of highway. 1 Billion will barely cover anything….. average working/walking distance is 1 mile per hour…..
So a group of people in California hourly wages will accommodate one mile plus median strip, every few hours. Side of highway, pullover, median strip, etc. It would take an army of 5000 men to remove the states litter. Funny they’re now paying the homeless to clean up the mess they’re largely responsible for.
”
in a politicized industry like transit getting media attention for buying electric buses is more important than actually moving people around.
” ~anti-planner
Small, clean:
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“California has 396,000 lane miles of highway.”
LazyReader, are you not aware that we are all using the internet and can quickly fact check your inability to read? You found that number on a Google search and didn’t read (surprise!) that 396,000 is total miles of all roads, not just highways.
“In 2016, California’s state highway system was made up of 51,000 lane miles. The state highway system consists of both federally and state?designated highways.”
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/3860