Halifax Transit welcomes first electric bus, with more to follow

Halifax Transit’s first electric bus arrived last week, and there are plans for 200 buses to follow by the end of 2024.

Halifax Transit’s first electric bus arrived last Tuesday, with plans for 200 buses to follow by the end of 2024.

This is part of Halifax Transit’s Zero Emission Bus Project, which also includes expanding the Ragged Lake Transit Centre and a rebuild of the Burnside Transit Centre, expected to be completed by 2028.

Some advocates have been concerned that Halifax Transit is not addressing concerns about bus overcrowding.

“I don’t mind the approach (Halifax Transit), being sort of a slow roll-out and ensuring that we have the charging infrastructure for those buses before we roll them out across the entire fleet,” said Evan Trenholm, a member of Halifax-based transit advocacy group It’s More than Buses.

“We need to make sure we have larger buses in our network so that we can meet the overcrowding needs of our current system.”

The electric buses will be the same size (40 feet) and hold the same number of passengers as Halifax Transit’s current diesel hybrid buses.

A spokesperson for Nova Bus says their current catalogue does not have larger articulating buses.

“There’s a growing demand as we exit the COVID years of this type of bus. We are definitely listening to the market we’re definitely asking our customers what their plans are for these articulating buses,” Christos Kritsidimas said.