Claudia Culley
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Gabriola Sounder
Two electric passenger buses are expected to join GERTIE Community Bus operations on Gabriola this summer, which will run in conjunction with the diesel buses currently in service for the time being.
The two electric buses are manufactured by Blue Bird Corporation and will fit 20 passengers in each bus, expanding passenger capacity from the 21 and 14 seat diesel buses.
One bus is expected to arrive in August, and the second bus should follow in September, said Steve Earle, chair of the GERTIE Community Bus Foundation.
GERTIE received $718,967 in funding last year to support the electric bus project.
The funding was granted by the federal government through its Rural Transit Solutions Fund, which supports locally driven transit solutions in rural, remote, Indigenous and Northern communities to help residents commute from day-to-day activities.
The Blue Bird electric buses cost almost $500,000 each, Earle said. While the Rural Transit Solutions Fund supported most of this expense, the rest will be covered by the provincial government’s Clean BC rebate program.
“We’re really excited, first of all because (the buses) are electric, and second because we’ve always bought used buses in the past, and for the first time ever we’re going to have new buses,” Earle said, adding that the used buses often break down.
“We’re optimistic that the new buses will be easier to maintain.”
GERTIE wanted to add electric buses to its operations to work towards its mission of being an environmentally responsible transit service.
“We’ve been trying to be as environmentally responsible as we can, right from the start, and part of that is just providing bus services so people don’t have to drive,” Earle said.
Prior to the electric bus initiative, GERTIE took measures to make its operations as eco-friendly as possible by fuelling its buses with waste vegetable oil from restaurants on Gabriola. It invested in a machine that converts vegetable oil into biodiesel to make this happen.
For the past five years, GERTIE’s buses haven’t been compatible with the converting machine, so it’s had to rely on diesel to fuel the buses. This further motivated it to launch electric buses.
GERTIE is receiving its electric buses shortly following the new BC Ferries policy prohibiting damaged electric vehicles from being towed onto its vessels.
If damaged, the electric buses can’t be fixed on Gabriola or Vancouver Island, Earle said.
They would need to be shipped to the bus retailer for repairs, which is in Surrey.
“The BC Ferries ban on electric vehicles also applies on the major routes, so we don’t know (what will happen).
“We’re all working on it,” Earle said. GERTIE is a flag-down bus system that started up in 2013.
“It is Gabriola’s primary public transit service and runs four different routes: Taylor Bay – Hemlock, Harrison-Village – Ferry, Whalebone and Silva Bay Express.
Adult fare for a one-way trip is $2.75 with ticket bundle and pass options available.
GERTIE runs buses daily except for Sundays and holidays. To learn more about GERTIE, visit https://gertie.ca
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