In a limited tender awarded last month, the city agreed to purchase six GOVA Transit clean diesel buses at a total cost of $5,824,960.
At their current $970,000 per bus, the price tag for municipal buses has ballooned from the $564,000 the city paid in 2018.
“Definitely, significant price increases,” city Transit Services director Brendan Adair told Sudbury.com this week, adding that between COVID-era cost escalations and tariffs, it’s been tough. Buses were $642,000 in 2021 and $828,000 in 2024.
That said, he clarified the buses would have likely been even more expensive if not for the city’s partnership with Metrolinx, an agency the province created in 2006 to co-ordinate transportation services in the province and uses bulk-buying to get municipalities lower prices.
This and future potential jumps in bus costs are being absorbed by a city council decision during last month’s 2026 budget deliberations to reassign $5.1 million previously earmarked toward a rapid transportation program.
This program, which could include such things as the transit-only roadways seen in southern Ontario, is far enough into the future that Adair said he believes the budget draw won’t impact future plans. When implemented, it would speed GOVA Transit along three corridors.
A rapid transit plan won’t be drafted until such time as the city has figured out what they’re doing with three transit hubs (New Sudbury, downtown, South End), which Adair said staff are still hashing out. He anticipates delivering a presentation to city council members by March to outline a proposal for one of these hubs.
Meanwhile, Adair said he anticipates the six new clean diesel buses will be in operation sometime in February.
The city has purchased Nova buses for the past several years, but their contract with Metrolinx expired and New Flyer Industries Canada ULC was awarded the latest contract.
This will be Greater Sudbury’s first batch of New Flyer buses in several years, but Adair said “the customer experience will be the same,” likening it to a Chevrolet versus Ford scenario.
“There is going to be a requirement for our bus operators to have some level of training,” he said. "They've been operating the same vehicle for years, so there’s going to be an aspect of ensuring they know where all the functions and switches of the buses are, but I’d anticipate that will be an easy transition.”
The buses, built in Winnipeg, are New Flyer’s latest line of Xcelsior Clean Diesel vehicles.
They’re promoted as weighing eight-per-cent less and using up to eight-per-cent less fuel than previous lines.
Clean diesel technology, the company’s promotional material says, “combines ultra-low sulfur diesel fuel, advanced engines, and effective emissions controls, resulting in a highly efficient and virtually smoke-free engine that can achieve lower emissions, reduce GHGs, and reduce the cost of bus operation.”
The six buses make up numbers 30-35 in what was initially an eight-year city plan (which hit a bump during the pandemic and is now a 10-year plan) to replace all 53 conventional buses.
With city buses carrying a projected lifespan of 12 years, a fresh plan is anticipated to take hold shortly thereafter to ensure there’s a continuous vehicle turnover.
The buses, Adair said, “are going very steadily, and we depend on the support of our fleet technicians to keep our buses running. Once they get to a certain age, that maintenance can be busy, so we appreciate that while they are in that life cycle.”
The buses are diesel-powered because city council members voted last year to back away from electrifying the fleet.
Within a study period of 2023-50, the net additional cost associated with shifting from diesel to battery-electric buses across the 59-vehicle fleet (using 2023 numbers and factoring in fuel savings), is $89.1 million.
At the time, city council members requested a report on alternative means of lowering greenhouse gas emissions, which Adair said he’s still on track to table by September.
Tyler Clarke covers city hall and political affairs for Sudbury.com.