Transport Minister Chris Steel on board the first Custom Denning electric bus when it arrived in October 2023. Photo: Ian Bushnell.
The four Australian-manufactured electric buses leased by Transport Canberra have been sent back to Sydney for attention after ongoing reliability issues related to their range.
Transport Canberra told Region that the Custom Denning Element 2 electric buses, which have spent a lot of time idle at their Belconnen depot, were suffering technical issues and it was working with the manufacturer to resolve them.
Transport Minister Chris Steel later confirmed that the problem was that the buses were not covering the expected 400 kilometres without recharging and had been limited to short runs.
Mr Steel told ABC radio that the four buses weren’t delivering the range that had been specified by the manufacturer.
“So they’re going up there to have some work done, but we expect them to return to the fleet to provide services, especially as we ramp up with the school year starting,” he said.
While the problem is limited to just these four buses and they are leased not owned by Transport Canberra, it comes as the MyWay+ ticketing system continues to have bugs and doesn’t perform as promised.
Transport Canberra said it was not considering tearing up the five-year, $3.8 million leasing contract with Custom Denning and remained committed to resolving the issues.
Mr Steel said the work to extend the buses’ range was being done during the quiet school holiday period when they were not needed.
He said the 41 Chinese-made Yutong electric buses, which make up most of the electric fleet, were operating really well and had been an excellent addition to the fleet.
“Generally speaking, I think most Canberrans that have used these electric buses on the network have found them to deliver really clean, quiet and comfortable services,” Mr Steel said.
“And mostly on the whole, quite reliable services.”
Transport Canberra has contracted to buy 90 of these and lease 12.
The ACT Government is committed to increasing the number of electric buses as part of its climate change strategy to fully transition the fleet by 2040 or earlier.
Mr Steel said the lessons learned from this procurement would be applied to further purchases and leases, as well as from the experience of Transport for NSW, which is also running Yutongs and other makes.
“We have over time learned some lessons about what we might procure in future in terms of some of the internal fit-out to make it better for both customers and for the drivers,” he said.
Despite the latest problems, Mr Steel said the bus fleet procurement program was on the right track.
“I’m pretty confident that with the technical advice that we got leading into that procurement, the work that we’ve done on the zero-emissions transition plan for Transport Canberra, which has now been updated, that we’ve got the right approach to market,” he said.
Mr Steel also defended the MyWay+ procurement, saying the current issues had to do with project management and testing before going live on 27 November.
He said the provider, NEC, was committed as much as Transport Canberra to improving the system.
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