Brampton Electric Bus Project grows Pan-Canadian Initiative

As part of the continued progress of the Pan-Canadian Electric Bus Demonstration and Integration Trial, CUTRIC announced the commitment of over $8 million from NRCan to Brampton Transit.

This funding will ensure the success of the project with the integrated inclusion of 8 standardised electric buses and 4 interoperable overhead high-power chargers.

The Pan-Canadian Electric Bus Demonstration and Integration Trial Phase I was launched at TransLink in Vancouver in April 2018 as part of a nationally coordinated effort to advance zero emissions transit technology, spearheaded by the Canadian Urban Transit Research and Innovation Consortium (CUTRIC).

CUTRIC brought together manufacturers, transit agencies, utilities, funding partners, research teams, and technology development capacities for the launch announcement that saw a demonstration trial through the community. Brampton Transit, the City of Brampton, York Region Transit, and the Regional Municipality of York join Translink and the City of Vancouver were the sites for the trial, with Brampton Transit having spearheaded the trial planning process back in 2016.

“The growth of the Pan-Canadian Electric Bus Demonstration and Integration Trial makes Canada a world leader in electric and zero-emissions transportation technologies by shifting the entire industry towards interoperability and standardisation. This is good news for taxpayers and great news for transit riders. This project is generating new low-carbon technology jobs and attracting investments by major companies into Canada's technology development sector,” said Josipa Petrunic, CEO, CUTRIC.

“The Pan-Canadian Electric Bus Demonstration and Integration Trial is a unique partnership model involving multiple levels of government, bus manufacturers, system integrators and funding partners collaborating in an unprecedented way on breakthrough technology to improve the environment. We are proud to be the lead transit agency in the planning and execution of this trial in partnership with CUTRIC. This project positions the City of Brampton to establish the largest single global deployment of standardised and fully interoperable battery-electric buses and high-powered overhead on-route charging systems,” said Alex Milojevic, General Manager of Brampton Transit.

Brampton Transit is working with two Canadian transit vehicle manufacturers (New Flyer Industries Canada of Winnipeg, Manitoba and Nova Bus, of St. Eustache, Quebec) and two charging station manufacturers (ABB Group and Siemens Canada, located in Montreal and Oakville respectively) to deploy electric buses and electric charging stations that utilise an open protocol known as the OppCharge protocol—first developed by Siemens and Volvo Bus Corporation.

CUTRIC will be collecting data from all of the electric buses and electric chargers in operation as part of this project in order to build a Canadian E-Bus Big Data Trust for Canadian municipalities in 2020.

CUTRIC is a member-based innovation consortium that partners stakeholders in industry, transit and academia to develop the next-generation of low-carbon smart mobility technologies. Its vision is to make Canada a global leader in low-carbon smart mobility technology innovation. Its mandate is to catalyse innovation in transportation, create jobs in doing so, and radically reduce emissions from transportation.

Partner companies that are invested in this project include New Flyer who is providing Xcelsior CHARGE battery-electric buses. For the purposes of the CUTRIC trial, the company is implementing an on-route rapid charging system in co-operation with ABB and Siemens who are the providers of the charging equipment. This overhead charging strategy allows the bus to essentially stay in service indefinitely and is limited only by the transit service demands.

Nova Bus, part of the Volvo Group, is providing LFSe electric buses. Through its fast charging technology, the LFSe can be charged in fewer than 5 minutes at the end of route stations. ABB and Siemens will supply interoperable opportunity charging systems with inverted pantograph technology for e-buses, rated up to 450 kW, to the e-bus demonstration project in Brampton, Ontario.