Efforts to expand Metro Vancouver’s public transit bus services are complicated by the growing steep upfront costs associated with the required new and expanded supporting facilities to operate and maintain the enlarged bus fleet.
Moreover, these costs are further compounded by TransLink’s strategy to gradually transition to a 100% zero-emission bus fleet by 2040 — completely through the rollout of battery-electric buses to replace aging vehicles and support service expansion.
Compared to conventional fossil fuel-powered buses, battery-electric buses carry a cost premium for both the per unit cost of acquiring a bus and the extensive infrastructure such vehicles require for charging, operations, and maintenance.
While TransLink’s 2040 zero-emission bus fleet goals are motivated by climate action, this strategy is also increasingly driven by pressure from Canada’s two primary bus manufacturers, which have been longtime suppliers for Metro Vancouver’s public transit bus fleet.
In November 2024, TransLink staff noted to the Mayors’ Council that Canada’s monopoly of domestic bus manufacturers — Manitoba-based New Flyer and Quebec-based Nova Bus — have begun eliminating the production of 40-foot-long regular and 60-foot-long articulated buses that are powered by diesel, hybrid diesel or natural gas. Both companies have already eliminated the production line of 60-foot-long articulated buses powered by hybrid diesel.
New Flyer offers both zero-emissions and combustions technology, while Nova Bus will only produce zero-emission buses starting in 2025, according to TransLink.
With both companies pivoting their production lines toward battery-electric buses, TransLink emphasizes there are growing supply chain and parts/service operational risks, with a risk that the public transit authority will experience long procurement timelines and increasing prices. The other possible option over the longer term is to acquire buses from foreign manufacturers, particularly European or Asian companies looking to establish a manufacturing hub in North America.
This also puts a big dent in TransLink’s options to possibly acquire some more lower-emission fossil-fuel-powered buses over the short term, as a longer-term transition to future battery-electric buses, particularly for the timely need to replace aging buses, which generally have a lifespan of up to roughly 15 to 20 years.
TransLink’s first new Nova Bus LFSEe+ electric-battery bus being charged at the bus loop at SkyTrain 22nd Street Station. (TransLink)
TransLink has identified a need to make very significant investments toward building new and expanded bus depots with the necessary equipment and infrastructure to support battery-electric buses. Such bus depots carry a cost premium compared to the less complex needs of fossil-fuel-powered buses.
“To put batter-electric buses into service, charging infrastructure needs to be in place. The six to eight years to develop and deliver charging infrastructure at the existing transit centres is a key constraint and poses a risk to achieving a zero-emission fleet by 2040. Ideally, the charging infrastructure needs to be in place 6-12 months in advance of battery-electric bus fleet deliveries to ensure operational readiness,” states the public transit authority.
“TransLink recognizes that the procurement, delivery methods, timelines, and supply chain risks/forces are different between fleet and infrastructure, and that the schedules for infrastructure need to tightly align with those of the fleet transition.”
Currently, TransLink estimates the cost of introducing new and expanded bus depots for battery-electric buses is about $6.52 billion.
This includes $3.02 billion for brand-new additional bus depots, including $2.15 billion for land acquisition and construction of a new zero-emission bus depot with charging infrastructure, $720 million for land acquisition and design work for another zero-emission bus depot, and $150 million for additional new bus depot capacity.
Another $3.5 billion comes from the expansion and introduction of battery-electric bus infrastructure for existing bus depots.
There are also further costs of $220 million for the installation of on-route charging infrastructure across Metro Vancouver and $370 million for the expansion of the bus fleet with up to 175 battery-electric buses, which grows such costs to about $7.1 billion.
These figures build on TransLink’s July 2023 update on its electrification strategy, when it indicated that accelerated planning is needed for more bus depots across the region to meet the needs of both battery-electric buses and a 50% medium-term increase in bus services across the region to meet growing demand. TransLink estimates bus depot capacity needs to increase by nearly 90%, or an increase of 2,000 additional bus spaces by 2035. Currently, TransLink has a bus fleet size of over 1,500 vehicles.
Without new and expanded bus depot capacity, TransLink is currently only capable of expanding bus services by up to 15%.
“The $7.1 billion infrastructure cost includes future zero-emissions expansion, through the Access For Everyone (AFE) Plan,” a TransLink spokesperson told Daily Hive Urbanized in November 2024.
“The main cost drivers are associated with land acquisition, design and construction of depots, and replacing buses that have reached the end of their service life. A majority of the overall costs are associated with bus service expansion through the AFE Plan. The upfront investment in zero-emissions buses will be offset by operational, maintenance, and energy savings.”
Buses parked at TransLink’s Burnaby Transit Centre bus depot. (Daniel Chai/Daily Hive)
One of the driving costs appears to be the expected high cost of land acquisition for such facilities with a massive footprint. Such facilities, which are in industrial use, are typically situated within industrial areas. However, with a growing industrial land shortage in Metro Vancouver, this means such sites come at a cost premium, given the high demand for suitable large parcels for such uses.
TransLink recently acquired two industrial properties, spanning a combined total area of 10 acres, immediately adjacent to Surrey Transit Centre at a cost of about $86 million. This will enable the long-term expansion of this bus depot.
But there are also ways of circumventing such high land costs. Before the provincial government took over planning for the Surrey-Langley SkyTrain project, TransLink had allocated up to $150 million for acquiring land for the new OMC5 operations and maintenance facility. Significant savings have since been achieved, with the provincial government quietly purchasing 37 acres of vacant land next to Fraser Highway near the Serpentine River, previously under the Agricultural Land Reserve (ALR), for just $8 million. The ALR designation was subsequently removed to allow for the site’s development into the train yard.
However, land acquisitions for bus depots also rely heavily on finding a suitable location that is convenient and suitable for the bus routes to be operated from the facility.
But the leading cost for such bus depot facilities appears to be the construction cost itself. Currently under construction, the new 20-acre Marpole Transit Centre on the Fraser River waterfront in South Vancouver — TransLink’s very first new additional bus depot for about 340 battery-electric buses — will carry a total cost of $848 million, which is nearly triple the 2021 preliminary cost estimate of $308 million.
It will reach completion in 2028. The new Marpole Transit Centre will join the upgraded and expanded Port Coquitlam Transit Centre, which is currently seeing its facilities renovated to handle about 100 battery-electric buses.
Artistic rendering of the Marpole Transit Centre’s operations building. (TransLink)
Artistic rendering of the Marpole Transit Centre’s operations building. (TransLink)
TransLink attributes the cost escalation for Marpole Transit Centre to not only market price inflation for materials, labour, and equipment, but also recent major changes to the BC Building Code that required a massive design overhaul to improve the structure’s performance, including adding over 3,500 steel foundational piles and drilling over 17,000 concrete columns into the ground.
Although battery-electric buses carry a lower operational cost, with energy costs per vehicle km travelled reduced by 82%, TransLink has noted the need to closely work with BC Hydro on the increased demand for the electrical grid. If the transition toward a battery-electric bus fleet is achieved as planned by 2040, this will add a load equivalent to less than half a percent of BC Hydro’s current capacity.
In addition to introducing battery-electric buses for fleet replacements and expansion, TransLink is also planning to replace 188 40-foot trolley-electric buses that went into service in 2006/2007 and are now reaching the end of their lifespan. By 2028, all 188 of these buses will be replaced by new in-motion charged capable trolley electric buses with a battery enabling longer-distance off-wire driving. As of this month, the cost of this order of new trolley electric buses is about $415 million.
This will be closely followed by the replacement of 74 60-foot articulated trolley-electric buses that went into service in the late 2000s.
The forthcoming orders for new replacement trolley-electric buses will enable the reuse of the existing network of overhead wire infrastructure — which is currently being upgraded — and the existing bus depot dedicated to this particular unique fleet. Located next to the north end of the Arthur Laing Bridge, right on the Fraser River waterfront near the future site of Marpole Transit Centre, the existing Vancouver Transit Centre, replacing the former Oakridge Transit Centre bus depot, was built in 2006 for $37 million ($55 million in 2024 dollars).
Trolley bus with longer range in-motion battery by Solaris Bus & Coach being tested by TransLink in Vancouver, on August 17, 2023. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)