Fifteen new battery-electric buses begin arriving for Whistler transit system

BC Transit has allocated 15 new 40-foot battery-electric buses to Whistler as part of its initial provincewide order for 125 vehicles. The first bus arrived this week, three more are expected by the end of October 2026, and the remaining 11 are expected in spring 2027. The first vehicles will be used for staff training before entering passenger service later in 2026.

Built by Canadian manufacturers New Flyer and Nova Bus, the 125 buses will serve eight provincially operated transit systems: Kamloops, Kelowna, Nanaimo, Nelson, Powell River, the Sunshine Coast, Greater Victoria and Whistler. The first 10 buses from the order entered service in Greater Victoria in spring 2025. Federal, provincial, municipal and regional governments are jointly funding the roughly $424-million project, which includes the buses, charging infrastructure, and construction or modifications to operations and maintenance facilities. Battery-electric buses are also expected to eventually join BC Transit fleets in the Fraser Valley.

BC Transit operates about 1,200 buses across the province, including more than 30 in Whistler’s system, which has about a dozen routes. The resort previously operated 20 hydrogen-powered buses introduced for the 2010 Winter Olympics at a cost of $90 million. They were withdrawn in 2014 and replaced with conventional diesel buses because operating costs were high, largely due to the lack of a local hydrogen supply.

Separately, TransLink is gradually shifting its Metro Vancouver bus fleet to zero-emission battery-electric vehicles. Construction is progressing on the $848-million Marpole Transit Centre on an 18-acre site along South Vancouver’s industrial waterfront on the Fraser River, near the Canada Line’s North Arm Bridge. Scheduled to open in 2028, it will be able to store, charge and maintain about 340 battery-electric buses.

Before year-end, TransLink is also expected to introduce its first new-generation 40-foot, three-door trolley bus, which will be able to operate off-wire for 20 kilometres using a larger battery. TransLink has ordered 275 trolley buses from European manufacturer Solaris to replace its aging fleet, with the full order expected before the end of the decade.