Trimet Electric Buses: The Winding Road
In August of 2017, Trimet announce the arrival of 5 New Flyer Xcelsior Battery Electric Buses. The buses have now arrived and the local media and Trimet Social Media Justice Warriors
have taken gone Colin Kaepernick to place their lips on the rears of the local transit agency. No matter your belief in the always ongoing climate change battle; one cannot overlook
the benefits such as cleaner air and a nice quite ride compared to diesel buses. These new buses must be the “bee’s knees” or are they?
I reached out to a transit connoisseur Al M (@AlYourPalster) for his opinion. Al says “Why not? Better than diesel.” While this is the common thought amongst riders and non-riders
alike, his thought that “If China can do it, why can’t we?” is troubling. Simply put, we aren’t China.
Line 62 provides mainly straight roads that spawn an approximate 13 miles. Great test run for a few reasons. 13 miles is a short distance allowing the new maintenance crew’s
to be within shouting distance for evaluation and the route consists primarily of straight roads. Straight roads you may ask? Yes, straight roads!
While Trimet planned the launch of the new buses to begin on Line 62 in August of 2017, in April of 2018 a possible issue occurred. Reported by electrek.com,
a New Flyer Xcelsior Battery Electric Bus rolled over during testing in Alabama. The initial cause of the accident was due to the top heavy battery packs located on the
rooftop that caused the bus to be top heavy.
Anniston police Sgt. Michael Webb commented:
“They were going around one of the curves on Werner Drive when the bus went off the road slightly to the right. The driver lost control and it tipped over
onto its side and slid to a stop.”
Luckily only minor injuries occurred. The lack of injury is alarming in the sense that due to no major injuries, New Flyer will investigate the cause by themselves.
Anyone that follows Trimet knows that when they investigate issues themselves, they rarely accept blame and most often the stories die off in the local media
and the truth never see’s the light of day. One article posted by NGTNews.com states the New Flyer found the operator being at fault for exceeding the
speed limit on an “S” curve and that the battery design had no fault. This could be more realistic in actual operation by your run of the mill bus operator
but seems far-fetched in a New Flyer employee test of the bus. (https://electrek.co/2018/04/06/electric-bus-rolls-over-crash-new-flyer/ and
https://ngtnews.com/new-flyer-bus-crashes-in-alabama-battery-packs-not-to-blame-says-company). If I were a Line 8 rider going up Terwilliger, I’d
be somewhat weary if or when the new buses begin the winding trek to OHSU and the Veterans Hospital.
Maintenance will be another slippery slope at Trimet. If you follow or research @AlYourPalster twitter feed, you’ll be blown away with Trimet dispatch
calls. While many are due to lack of operator training and the over growing homeless population within the City of Portland, you’ll find many
simple and outright ridiculous maintenance issues that shouldn’t occur within a transit agency the size of Trimet. Fare boxes, head signs, junk buses
mirrors….YES MIRRORS are so common it’s like betting red or black at the roulette table. You have good odds of hearing dispatch calls regarding
the complete lack of vehicle maintenance. While the main idea behind a transit agency that states “How We Roll” would be to maintain
their vehicles in an operation, Trimet dearly struggles with the concept.
In October of 2017, Washington D.C’s Metro pulled New Flyer hybrid buses after an argument with the ATU Local 689 after arguments about
ignition wiring that lead to a bus stalling and crash. The union believed that Metro knew about the issue prior and should’ve pulled the bus
upon knowing of the faulty wiring. While this was a NABI Hybrid that is manufactured by New Flyer and not the electric bus Trimet has
purchased, the history provides a winding road to the unknown.
Will New Flyer have members of their maintenance team here to teach the under staffed vehicle maintenance department?
How long will they stay after training? Will they remain in Portland during the launch? If so, how long? What is the estimated cost for the
their services? How frequently will refresher classes be required if at all?
I reached out to Trimet via text to ask for the email of Roland Hoskins who is the Executive Director of Maintenance Operations,
Customer Service stated they knew who he was but didn’t have his email. I then asked for their head of communications. The politely
responded asking me to call and be transferred. I thank them for their time but knowing Trimet I decided that it would be a
waste of my time to wait for a call back. I may be wrong but since I’m not a member of the local media that is writing a puff
piece, the chances of receiving a call back is .000001%.
In conclusion, reach your own conclusion! Will Trimet be able to navigate the winding road to success, or will they
tip over themselves and roll down the embankment? Only time will tell.
Putin News
Great commentary.
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