Wood, the global engineering and consulting company, is helping transform Oakville, Ontario’s vision for a carbon neutral future into reality with their expertise in sustainable, integrated and technology-driven transportation solutions.

Wood is creating a roadmap that will see the town deliver on their sustainability goals and replace the current diesel-powered public transit buses with zero-emission vehicles. A team of public infrastructure experts and our innovative, cloud-based simulation tools will determine the optimal transit network and decarbonisation solutions – from bus routes and battery charging station locations to the actual types and sizes of buses in the fleet.

Oakville’s CAN $66M project is being jointly funded by federal, provincial and municipal governments. Some of the capital comes from the $180B Investing in Canada Plan which is focused on delivering sustainable solutions for communities.

“Combining our trusted expertise with state-of-the-art tools is a real game changer for our clients, enabling them to consider an almost infinite number and combination of variables that can impact route planning – like battery range, operation costs, weather factors, heavier than expected passenger loads, and even impact to the environment,” said John Weeraratne, Group Manager of Wood’s Resilient Environments business in Canada. “We can also take historic data and extrapolate that out to provide clients a clear picture of what their initial investment looks like over an entire lifecycle.”

Wood’s simulators are also backed-up with analysis from our diverse team of global experts, which include industrial, mechanical and electrical engineers.

“Oakville Transit continues to seek improvements and efficiencies to our transit network to reduce our environmental footprint while expanding our service to meet the needs of our customers,” said Barry Cole, director, Oakville Transit. “Our Town Council has been active in implementing policies and programs that address climate change since 2006. Wood’s extensive expertise in energy transition, mobility and design solutions will help us move forward to reach our goals.”