Air conditioning ‘just doesn’t work’ for buses: STM

While Montrealers who dream of someday riding through downtown in an air-conditioned bus or metro saw cold water poured on that vision once again this week, the Societe de transport de Montreal is studying whether air conditioning can eventually be installed on long-haul routes with few stops.

Costs and a duty to the environment were the ammunition used to shoot down a motion tabled Monday at city council that any new addition to the transit authority’s rolling stock be equipped to keep passengers cool. The motion was withdrawn soon after being tabled.

"Our engineers are clear, all the literature is clear: you add air conditioning (to frequent stop bus routes), you’re adding to fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions," said city councillor and STM vice-chairperson Marvin Rotrand. "When you’re stopping every few blocks, you’re letting in a lot of hot air -it just doesn’t work."

Rotrand added, however, that the situation might prove different on long-haul express routes, such as the 211 route linking the West Island with the Lionel-Groulx metro station.

"We’re not convinced that’s the answer, but we are studying it and we probably won’t have an answer for another year."

The Projet Montreal motion noted that New York City’s new subway cars and buses are air-conditioned, and that air conditioning does not seem to appear on the STM’s call for tenders for new metro cars. It urged the STM to ensure that any new subway cars are air-conditioned.

However Rotrand argued that STM studies had shown it would cost about $20 million to equip the transit authority’s fleet of buses with air conditioning units and an additional $5 million annually to maintain them.

Fuel consumption would increase by about 25 per cent, while the exhaust from the air conditioning units as well as from the buses would create about 3,200 tonnes of greenhouse gases a year.

The costs for an air-conditioned metro seem more daunting -$50 million to equip the cars, a little under $2 million annually to maintain the units as well as 700 litres of water condensation from the units leaked into the metro’s tunnels every rush hour.

Rotrand also said client surveys by the STM found that air conditioning was a concern of only 14 per cent of the clientele using the metro system and ranked 12th as a priority by those using the buses.

The STM has tried to lessen the effects created by summer heat waves and the friction of the rubber wheels on the metro’s trains by improving ventilation as it conducts as an ongoing renovation of its tunnels.

New metro cars to replace the STM’s aging fleet were originally expected to be delivered as early as 2012, but legal challenges to the bidding process have repeatedly delayed the awarding of the contract.