Bus transport market in Canada
Canada is known for the high rate of motor vehicles ownership in the world (~23.5 million motor vehicles 2018). Although there is high number of private cars but the bus market is also growing in the country. There are around 92,000 registered buses (2018), including urban transit, school buses and intercity/coaches.
The large number of buses are operating in the school segment (~42,000), but the demand for urban transit buses is also growing (~20,000). There are around 96 urban transit companies. However, the market is largely controlled by public transit companies.
Urban transit companies get subsidy from the government. According to Statistic Canada, the urban transit industry received 98 cents in operating funding for every dollar in fares (2016). Crew and staff salaries constituted around 65-70% of total operating expenses. Thus, any improvement in this segment can have big impact on the cost.
Transit systems across Canada use the following parameters to evaluate the service performance:
- Revenue Passengers per Hour of service
- Number of trips are taken annually based on the population served in a given year
- Financial performance is calculated by Direct and auxiliary operating expense in a given year divided by the total vehicle hours (i.e. revenue service, deadheading and charters)
Public transit agencies are looking to outsource the operation to private companies to improve efficiency and cost optimization. However, there is strong resistance from the union to make such move.
Most of the urban transit companies are moving towards the adoption of electric buses around the world. Currently, there are less than 50 electric passenger buses operating in Canada. However, some of the cities have placed big orders like Montreal – 30, Laval – 10, Edmonton – 50 and Toronto – 60. The slow adoption of electric buses is mainly due to non-availability of federal funding. In China and India, the subsidy from the federal government helped to spur the growth of electric buses. Some states like Quebec and Alberta has special funding program for induction of e-buses.
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