School bus service at two Montreal-area school boards to resume Monday | CBC News
Students with both the Lester B. Pearson School Board (LBPSB) and the English Montreal School Board (EMSB) will be able to take the bus to get to their classes on Monday morning.
In social media posts Sunday evening, the boards confirmed their Lion electric bus fleets are ready to hit the road.
“All Lion electric buses are repaired, inspected, and ready to roll!,” EMSB Chairperson Joe Ortona wrote.
The LBPSB said all safety inspections had been completed on its fleet as well.
“We sincerely appreciate your patience and understanding throughout the past week and recognize the inconvenience this unexpected situation may have caused,” the board wrote.
Some 1,200 Lion buses were pulled out of service earlier this month, as a precautionary measure after one of the buses caught fire.
The bus manufacturer later asked providers to change a fuse on its electric and diesel school buses.
According to First Student, the parent company of Transco which owns the bus that caught fire, about 30 per cent of its Lion fleet had been inspected and repaired as of last week.
After initially being told Lion buses would gradually begin returning to service starting Monday, the manufacturer urged operators to conduct further inspections on both electric and diesel models.
“The remaining buses are in various stages of inspection and repair, and we are working diligently to complete this process,” First Student told CBC News in a statement Friday.
The company confirmed the availability of replacement parts has been the “primary bottleneck” in getting the buses back on the road.