Transport Canada is investigating last Tuesday’s fire of a Lion school bus

All 1,200 electric school buses from Lion have been ordered off the roads in the province of Québec last night

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/school-bus-fire-halted-1.7632024
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Tous les 1200 autobus scolaires électriques de la compagnie Lion ont été ordonnés à l’arrêt dans la province de Wuébev hier soir

https://ici.radio-canada.ca/nouvelle/2191941/1200-autobus-lion-arret-raisons-securite-incendie?partageApp=mastodon&accesVia=lien

#Montréal #Lion

@EdwinG Probably for the best until they can inspect the heating systems on all the buses.

@javensbukan Better safe than sorry for sure.

I'm trying to find the press release on this one, but can't find it. It seems that the province didn't mention the heating system at all in its order.

This said, what we need to ask as well: For school boards and schools servicing a city that's capable, why not use the public transportation service instead (in general)? They also provide this service.

@EdwinG Of course - and I agree with that - they should be pulled and inspected.

Agreed - locally where I live there are areas that use Transit buses for school runs - but it's apparently just a *pilot program* - so you still see both English and French school board buses running around.

https://www.halifax.ca/transportation/halifax-transit/transit-programs-services/student-pass-pilot-program

@javensbukan It's well in place in Montréal, over 20 years ago; same for its suburbs. I can't speak for other Québec cities with public transportation.

https://www.stm.info/en/info/networks/bus-network-and-schedules-enlightened/bus-services-schools

@javensbukan @EdwinG
Was it an electric resistance heater in this one? I discovered the other day that some of these busses have an auxiliary, diesel powered heater.

@Crispius @EdwinG Oh the *original* article on CBC mentioned it was an electric heater - but perhaps that's why they've removed it from the article...

Perhaps it wasn't!

I know the LFSe+'s that my city has also have auxiliary (diesel) heaters like you mentioned - so perhaps!

@javensbukan

It seems that the Volvo/NovaBus LFSe+ does use full-electric heating: https://novabus.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/LFSe_brochure_march2021_EN.pdf

New Flyer, the other manufacturer, is unclear: https://www.newflyer.com/site-content/uploads/2023/01/Xcelsior-CHARGE_NG-Brochure.pdf; I have not found their model listed anywhere.

These are standard options; it's possible that the corporations took some other out-of-spec option.

@Crispius That's the current hypothesis. We'll probably hear more after the TC investigation.

@EdwinG @Crispius

Bah! I was going on the information from the attached article and it mentioned that it used an auxiliary Diesel heater! But i'd trust NovaBus over city hall

https://www.halifaxexaminer.ca/government/city-hall/halifax-transit-charges-ahead-to-get-fleet-of-electric-buses-ready-for-next-winter/

@javensbukan I would trust the city on this one They're the ones doing the order!

Buses are quite customizable

Tangent: I just noticed that Volvo discontinued the LFSe, which would explain why Montréal stopped using them this year (and reverted to diesel buses)

@Crispius

@EdwinG @Crispius Bahaha touché!

Huh - you'd think they'd upgrade to the LFSe+'s But also, $$$, so maybe that's why.

My Tangent: I'll never forgive my city for getting rid of our overhead wires - we had trolleybuses here up until 1970 - we replaced them with Diesel buses just in time for the 1973 oil crises.

@javensbukan
The LFSe and LFSe+ are not quite 1-to-1 replacements. LFSe were quick-charge buses. They ran exclusively on route 36; we had two series of them.

https://cptdb.ca/wiki/index.php/Société_de_transport_de_Montréal_36-901_to_36-903

Montréal uses New Flyer e-buses for non-quick charge. Although they have their first LFSe+ on order.

Tangent reply: Me too! Also, trams! We had trams!

@Crispius