Quebec's largest school board begins shift to electric buses

Quebec's largest school board rolled out its first electric school bus on Tuesday.

The CommissionscolairedeMontralplansto swap out its entire fleet of gas-guzzlingschool buses over the next decade.

Catherine HarelBourdon, the president ofthe school board,said the switch sends a positive environmental messageto the community.

"We know how important environmental issues are for students," Bourdon said in a statement Tuesday.

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The CSDM says it's the first electric school bus on the island.

Other regions, including Laval and the Eastern Townships, have already been testing them out.

It carries a$305,000 price tag but the province helped out with a $125,000 subsidy.

The fleet operator,Autobus Idal, saidthe electric bus is 80 per cent cheaper to operate than a regular bus.

Thebus can travel for 120 kilometres after being plugged in for 4.5 hours, making it ideal for the school bus routes,said the president of the company,Pierre Deschnes.