For Alberta municipalities, bringing a new bus into the depot comes with a higher price tag these days.
Ten new buses will cost the City of St. Albert nearly $1.5 million more than what was initially budgeted.
“The reality of it is we’re going to have to face increased prices,” St. Albert councillor Wes Brodhead said.
Council approved the extra spending over a two-year period, and $213,500 will be taken from capital reserve in 2024, while the other $1.2 million will come from the transit lifecycle reserve next year.
Municipalities say the increase is a problem across the country.
“We’re going to have to deal with those price increases as they come,” Brodhead said.
A City of Edmonton report shows 322 buses need to be replaced during the 2023-26 budget cycle. It’s expected to cost $257.6 million if all those buses are replaced.
“The costs would be higher if the buses are replaced with zero-emission buses,” Edmonton Transit Service branch manager Carrie Hotton-MacDonald said in a statement.
“There is a limited number of bus manufacturers in North America and over the last several years, we have seen price increases for all types of buses and parts.
“This is an issue impacting the transit sector across North America.”
“It’s not only the purchase of rolling stock, it’s the ongoing maintenance and dealing with the increased costs,” Brodhead said.
The Canadian Urban Transit Association says key components — including batteries and computer chips — have seen ‘substantial’ price hikes.
One transportation planner says there’s also another technology factor at work.
“There’s a big transition happening, to hybrid and to electric,” said David Cooper of Leading Mobility. “That’s something that’s also impacting costs for the replacement of transit buses.”
Cooper’s firm helps support public transit planning.
He says an annual $3-billion federal fund will help municipalities when it starts in 2026 — but that wait could come with a cost.
“We’re in this spot right now where you can’t replace the vehicles because the funding is not available for two more years and the prices of these vehicles is only going to increase,” Cooper said.
Municipalities like St. Albert are already facing such costs.
“We’ll have to finesse how we’ll deal with that in terms of our finances,” Brodhead said.
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