Traffic chaos at schools as electric buses grounded
By Joel Goldenberg
The Suburban
There was traffic chaos around Montreal island schools Sept. 12,15 and 16 as more than 1,200 Transco LION electric school buses were not able to transport elementary and secondary students.
Parents were first informed at around 9:30 p.m.Sept. 11. There had been an electric school bus fire Sept. 9 in the area of Jean Talon West and Victoria. No one was injured.
“As a precautionary measure, Transco has decided to temporarily remove all electric vehicles from service in order to conduct a full inspection of their fleet,” an English Montreal School Board advisory said. “As a result, no transportation will be available tomorrow for students who normally use these electric buses . We kindly ask that parents make the necessary arrangement to transport their children to and from school for this day only.”
The advisory added that non-electric diesel buses were operating as usual.
“There will likely be increased traffic around the school during drop-off and pick-up times.”
The same message was sent to parents Sunday for the Sept. 15 school day and Monday for the Sept.16 school day. For the EMSB schools, affected routes are 101, 102, 104, 105, 106, 107, 108, 109, 110, 113, 114, 117, 118, 119, 121, 122, 124, 126, 130, 132, 133, 134, 201, 202, 203, 204, 206, 207, 208, 210, 211, 212, 213, 214, 215, 220, 222, 227, 228, 229, 230, 233, 234, 235, 236, 238, 239, 240, 242, 243, 244, 248, 249, 254, 256, 257, 259, 260, 261, 262, 263, 265, 266, 269, 271, 274, 275, 276, 277, 284, 285, 501, 508 and 511.
For the Lester B. Pearson Board, the affected routes are 1, 2, 8, 9, 10, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 18, 19, 20, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 45, 61, 62, 63, 65, 68, 69, 73, 602, 607, 105, 110, 111, 112, 113, 114, 115, 116, 117, 118, 119 and 120.
That was indeed increased traffic Friday in the area of Roslyn School, as well as much pedestrian activity at both school entrances. The Suburban spoke to some of those who had to bring children by car.
Raphael Bouskila said he heard about the grounding of the school buses “pretty late, about 10:30 p.m. Thursday.
“We did not see an explanation, other than safety,” he added, at which point we informed him of the school bus fire earlier in the week.
“I heard about that. It was pretty scary. Fortunately, I was able to contact another parent and carpool with them. It’s all right, but it was obviously a departure from the norm. There was previously a school bus strike, where they were out for a month. I hope it doesn’t last that long.”
Parent Ahmed Farag also said the news came to him by email that the electric buses were not running came suddenly.
“I’ll have to leave my work [later] to come here,” he added.
Carole Canzer brought her grandchildren to Roslyn.
“They’re always driven to school, but I had to park far away because of the fact some of the parents couldn’t bus their kids. We knew there would be a ton of cars here. We got here earlier than usual, it really wasn’t too much of an inconvenience. My son-in-law and daughter sent me the email notification this morning, but I think they found out last night.” n
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