TransLink to buy more diesel and diesel-electric hybrid buses | Daily Hive

R4 41st Avenue RapidBus. (TransLink)

TransLink had previously aimed to stop buying diesel-powered buses by 2023, as part of its full pivot toward zero-emission vehicles, focusing on a transition into using battery-electric buses.

However, that is no longer the case due to the sluggish pace and high upfront costs of achieving the significant supporting infrastructure needed to operate, maintain, and store a large fleet of battery-electric buses, including the extensive charging infrastructure and new and expanded bus depots.

Metro Vancouver’s public transit authority has issued a new Request For Proposal (RFP) seeking bids from bus manufacturers to design, produce, supply, and deliver up to 25 regular 40-ft-long, two-door diesel-electric hybrid buses. The final bus from this order would be delivered by no later than the end of June 2028.

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Additionally, the contract with the successful proponent would provide TransLink with the future option to exercise an additional order of up to 100 vehicles, including 40-foot diesel-electric hybrid buses, 40-foot diesel buses, or 60-foot diesel articulated buses. If exercised, the delivery of the additional buses would begin in early 2028 and end in late 2030.

Altogether, up to 125 diesel-electric hybrid or diesel buses could be ordered.

Upon inquiry, TransLink spokesperson Dan Mountain told Daily Hive Urbanized that such an order provides “flexibility as we work to install battery-electric bus charging infrastructure.”

“TransLink will continue to invest in more battery-electric buses, but until the supporting infrastructure upgrades are complete, a diverse fleet is necessary for expansion,” he added.

In late 2024, TransLink estimated it faces a $6.5-billion cost over the coming years to build new bus depots and expand existing ones to support both the transition to a fully battery-electric bus fleet and the overall expansion of bus services.

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 brings such costs to about $7.1 billion.

Construction is well underway on TransLink’s very first brand-new bus depot for battery-electric buses. When complete in 2028, the Marpole Transit Centre bus depot — located on the Fraser River waterfront next to the Canada Line bridge in South Vancouver — will have a capacity to handle up to 340 battery-electric buses. The cost of this single project has grown exponentially to $848 million.

But TransLink’s short-term pivot to ordering more diesel buses could also be challenged by the limited options and reduced production capacity among domestic manufacturers to fulfill orders on time. New bus procurements are driven not only by service expansion needs, but also by the requirement to replace aging buses approaching the end of their lifespan in a timely manner — creating firm deadlines for orders and delivery. Conventional buses have a lifespan of roughly 15 to 20 years.

TransLink staff previously noted 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 and 60-foot articulated buses that are powered by diesel, hybrid diesel or natural gas. Both companies have already eliminated the production line of 60-ft articulated buses powered by hybrid diesel.

New Flyer offers both zero-emission and combustion technology, while Nova Bus will only produce zero-emission buses starting in 2025, according to TransLink.

As well, a November 2024 industry report highlighted that New Flyer has a production backlog worth $12 billion — equivalent to about 14,000 buses — with 42 per cent being zero-emission vehicles. Additionally, Nova Bus, owned by Volvo, is in the process of recalibrating its business following its decision to close its U.S. manufacturing facilities in 2025 and focus on its Canadian production hubs.

TransLink’s long-term goal is to achieve a 100 per cent zero-emission bus fleet by 2040, with this transition being gradual from replacing aging diesel and natural gas-powered buses with battery-electric models. Currently, TransLink has a fleet of roughly 1,600 conventional buses, which are largely powered by fossil fuels.

In March 2025, TransLink announced it had selected European firm Solaris Bus & Coach to build a new replacement fleet of trolley buses. This deviates from the public transit authority’s historic practice of ordering from domestic bus manufacturers. The existing trolley buses, entering retirement later this decade when the replacements arrive, were built by New Flyer in the 2000s.

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