
The J4500 Charge electric coach bus, operated by Traxx, that departed Kamloops Monday morning. (Photo by Bill Sarai)
A record setting trip out of Kamloops today.
Western-Canada based Traxx Coachlines is running an all-electric bus from Kamloops to Delta.
President and CEO Matthew Cox says the bus was made by Winnipeg-based MCI Motorcoach Industries.
He says the length of this trip by electric bus, at 360 kilometres, will make the Guinness Book of World Records, and so too will the elevation of the trip over the Coquihalla and Surrey Lake summits.
“Transportation is going through a once-in-a-century fundamental shift. We are going to be seeing a shift away from diesel technology. And we want to make sure we understand the actual products that are out there and offered,” Cox tells NL News.
“The reason why we also through the gauntlet out there for the Guinness Book of World Records, is to try to introduce some of the concepts that are done in aviation… when you introduce a new model of aircraft. Same sort of thing here; MCI is introducing a new inter-city motorcoach, we want to start to set records with it to stimulate that evolution of the product.”
Traxx has 240 buses and Cox suspects a “slow migration” to move to an all-electric fleet. He says infrastructure will need to catch up as well.