Dayton Ohio here. I work for the RTA and I get to drive these trolleys. Not shown in the video were our 1998 eti skoda trolleys we use. And only 3 in operation for the new generation or as we call them nexgen trolleys. Definitely is a neat system.
Oh wow! I can't believe I did not ask you this earlier: are only new gens running in Dayton? I visited Dayton at the end of July in 2018 and only two or three new gens were running and no other trolleybuses were running - was this temporary or is Dayton moving to diesel? Thanks!
There are only 3 new ones running in Dayton. They have been in service since 2014. Dayton is the only city to use a gillig bus as a trolley. They are fitted with the trolley technology by vossloh kiepe. There was 4 but one was involved in a bad accident and was totaled out. The old 1998 eti trolley buses are widely used now on route 8 and will be back on route 4 once construction is done there. Construction has limited our use of trolleys. We will be getting more nexgen buses possibly into 2019
Dayton Ohio. I was a driver for the GDRTA. The trolleys were fun to drive. Each old Skoda had its own personality. My personal favorite Skoda was 9808. However, the NextGen 1403 would just about fly. It would be nice to expand the network of trolleys county wide. But most of the cities refuse to allow overhead powerlines run through their precious little burgs.
We have more than 500 trolley buses in Kyiv, many of them are very brand new. Only few non-low floor left. Interesting that most of them 60ft articulated ones. As of 2018 we have 43 routes. Some of them are covering all city and are around 25 km long. There are 4 special night routes different from day ones. New routes are opening. I'm proud that the situation is not like in Moscow.
Philadelphian over here. Well, sorta. I live in a town named Brookhaven / Chester. A small city that is a couple miles away from Philly. We got a handful of septa buses and a couple of regional rail stops. But thats about it. I wish we had more like these trollyless buses. Also, thank you for featuring philly first on this video. It means a lot to me.
I agree trolley buses do have a future with the way fuel prices are going . Since Wellington NZ got rid of their trolley buses they have had nothing but problems Buses turning up late, not at all, buses fill and driving past a real problem
We had a substantial system in the west and central parts of Toronto until 1992. Trolley buses were introduced in 1921 rgwn scrapped. They were reintroduced after WW2 to replace certain tram routes that lost passengers after the subway opened. The Bay route was given a 1 year reprieve until 1993 with the use of surplus Edmonton buses. Official reason was the expensive replacement of infrastructure that was 50 plus years old. I miss them. Cool to see the forward thinking of Dayton officials. Rode that system in the 1970 while visiting family.
My favorite is the one in Mexico City. You can ride it for 0.15 cents (american dollar) and you usually get the tickets in a rechargable card thats costs 1 dollar. You can put up to 10 dollars in the card and is usable in the buses, metro and light rail systems ! It is overall very cheap to move around Mexico City.
Once upon a time, when I was just a child, Kenosha Wisconsin had trolly busses but got replaced with internal combustion busses a very long time ago. I remember the driver having to get out to get back on the wire.
I grew up riding the trackless trolleys in Boston in the 1950's and early 1960's (not the Harvard routes). For me they are nostalgic but also a great mode of transit.
Chicago at one time had an extensive trolley bus system. it ended in 1973 because then Mayor Richard J. Daley didn't like the fact that the buses couldn't leave the trolley and go around obstacles like road construction, accidents and fires. Today, the Chicago Transit Authority and Pace Suburban use non-trolley electric/diesel hybrids. No data has ever been discussed in the local media as to how often buses are run totally by electric battery or how much fuel savings has been realized. Wikipedia states that the Chicago trolley bus system lasted from April 1930 until 25 March 1973. I turned 9 in 1973. I can never recall any remarkable instances of transit disruption associated with electric trolley buses--not even widespread power outages seemed to affect trolleybus service in Chicago. It was great.
Just saw your video today, my favourite trolley bus system no longer exists, it's in my hometown of Edmonton, Alberta. It was a sad day when they removed it.
Trolley Coaches provide a healthy, quiet form of transportation. It's a shame so many cities dismantled their systems. Thank GM for that back in the 50's/60's. Marmon-Herrington were the best Trolley Coaches ever! (Dayton)
@Bill Wagner Agreed! I rode the Marmon-Herrington trolley buses (Cincinnati Transit Co.) back in the late-1950's to the early-1960's. I mourned the day that Cincinnati did away with their trolley buses.
In Seattle too trolley busses go where diesel would struggle or not even make it on a rainy day with street grades 20%. Madison street from the ferry dock goes up at a grade of 19%. Seattle retained them like San Francisco because no other bus motive options matched their hill climbing capability.
SF does score over Seattle if its trolleybuses run weekends. I look forward to Seattle attempt to do near-brt with one line of trolleybus (rapid ride j)
My favorites would be Philly, 'cause it's cool, Dayton, 'cause it's so small, and Vancouver because I live nearby and sometimes ride one. When a trolley bus stops, (and the air compressor for the brakes doesn't happen to be running), it's dead silent. You hear small noises from outside, quiet conversation, and the acoustic environment of the bus interior. There's something nice about that.
We have had trolleybuses in Bratislava since 1941. In the seventies the system was close to dismantling. Only some five routes were left. But later on, doe to the oil crisis, electric transport was given priority and almost all routes were reestablished in some form. There are mountainous areas in the city with some pretty steep slopes, which are served exclusively by trolleybuses. Trolleybuses also run to some suburbs. There are rather ambitious plans to extend the system, but new routes do not open that often. I have always been a big fan of this mode of transportation. My main mode is the tram, but there is a trolleybus route running by the suburb I live in, which I ride from time to time.
Yes here in Ontario we had a few systems. Thunder Bay (closed 1970 or so), Kitchener (closed 1973), Hamilton (closed 1992) and Toronto which closed first in 1991 then was reprieved for 18 months (closed 1993). I miss them
I think trolleybuses should remain operating when they exist. They are damn cool. When cities will have money for wireless electric buses, they may slowly convert to them but never convert to diesel buses like in Moscow and Wellington.
@@adrianhoiland20 Yeah Moscow is cutting the trolleybus network piece by piece starting from city center and launches diesel buses instead. And Wellington shut down the whole network completely in 2017 and replaced with diesel buses in one day.
@@adrianhoiland20 In Moscow they say, we hate wires they make streets look ugly. But they don't replace with electric buses. Russians have very bad technology so all of electric buses they were spending millions dollars not working properly. And so, they just run diesel buses but promise they will be electric :) And in Wellington, well, they say that service of wires costs way too much and trolleybuses are not profitable.
@@adrianhoiland20 I live in Kyiv Ukraine we have different situation, there are a lot of slopes and also snow in the winter so trolleybuses are winning :) We have 43 routes and new ones are opening, 4 night routes, brand new low floor articulated vehicles arriving in stock each year etc. This is very very pleasant :)
Philly, at one time, had five trackless trolley lines, two exclusive lines in the Northeast part of Philly (59, 66), one crosstown line (75, seen in this video) and two South Philly lines (29, 79). These lines temporarily bus lines in 1999, when SEPTA got rid of the 1978-79 GM vehicles. When SEPTA began purchasing the current fleet of New Flyer trackless trolleys, SEPTA decided to permanently keep the South Philly lines as bus lines, despite protests from many riders to bring back trackers trolleys on those lines. Next year (2019), SEPTA will run all-electric buses on those two lines.
And 59,66,75 went Bus in 2003 when Frankford Terminal was rebuilt. At the same time, they sent the trackless to South Philly for the 29,79 for a year and then retired them there. The newer coaches in the video were built by New Flyer in 2007.
Those Skoda trolleys in SF are a sight to see. I didn´t even know they sold them overseas (they were made in Czech Republic, Europe). Trolleybus is more expensive to buy and many cities are replacing theirs with hybrid or electric buses. Hybrids have much more issues, they are heavier than trolleys or regular diesel buses and fuel savings are not worth the higher running costs, also once the batteries are done, the replacements will even out the fuel savings (this has been the experience in Europe with MAN and Volvo hybrid diesels) .Battery powered buses still have quite limited mileage between charging, meaning they can only cover additional shifts at peak hours or run on short routes in downtown. A trolleybus can also run much longer than a diesel or a natural gas fueled bus, because the electric engine can run for ages, it´s the bodywork and frame that will give in.
Probably TransLink (former BC Transit) in greater vancouver area. Also largest fleet in North America. Van also has a SkzTrain an driverless light rail system going across the Frazer River to Surrey
The Next Gen Trolleys you saw in Dayton were test buses. RTA was deciding to possibly go with diesel electric or all electric. I believe the one they chose is all electric on or off wire
The older Somex and MASA trolleybuses from Mexico City. Recently retired. I will not miss them given they were old and had a way nicer replacement but they were one of our urban icons.
I was surprised by Seattle's use of XT60s and XT40s. They need to use them weekdays, but they surely do match up to standards. Plus, When the ETIs from SF were killed by the junker trolleys, my love for muni trolleybuses imeddiatly fell to the XT60s due to their loud motor.
The only trolley bus I have ever ridden on was in Edmonton, Canada back in the 80s. They no longer have them. I don't know when they dismantled theirs. I now live in Dayton. I see them plying up and down Salem Ave.
We need fewer cars and far more trolleys and trolley buses in our urban areas. This will speed up traffic, reduce congestion, reduce air pollution, result in fewer accidents and casualties, promote commerce, and improve the quality of life.
I think battery technology is advanced enough that we can have electric buses with out the ocs. However perhaps in cities that have hilly routes and heavy duty cycles this could be supplemented with trolley ocs to help power them in these parts of the routes and recharge them on trunk routes
Yes keep them and extend them. America the land of the infernal combustion engine at least has systems. Stupid Britain had so many systems including London the largest fleet in the world. Now they want batteries that wear out. Sanfransisco has a great trolleybus system plus iconic cable cars plus wonder heritage tram cars from all over the US plus a Milan tram a Melbourne tram and two open top Blackpool open top boat trams. I love Sanfransisco
Dammit Toronto and Edmonton! Why did you have to get rid of your trolleybus systems!? Toronto and Edmonton has some of the most extensive systems in North America but alas, now one in this city (Toronto) knows how to make a good transit system!
San Francisco for its very steep gradients just like Seattle and also they share something in common with Vancouver British Columbia is that they have hydropower powering the electric bus networks. Boston is unique because it has these trolley bus run on Interstate 90 Massachusetts & Ohio Turnpikes New York State Thruway Illinois & Indiana Tollways Boston Harbor section going to Logan Airport
San Francisco, because I liked classic buses. I'm from Mexico City and I love system trolleybus of this city, BTW we got new chinese buses, wich are faster and more modern, and the current mayor of the city has invested a lot of money to improve the system and create more routes.
And Auckland removed theirs back in the 80's after 30years of service and the trolleys replace an extensive tram system that was removed in the 1950's and all we now have is smelly diesels
Whatever is left of existing trolley routes that are still in service should stay. Even if people say to replace them with just electric buses, or that the wires block the view of the sky, they are here to stay and to tell us that in the past, Trolley buses were the future. And that they are part of the history of what Trolley buses used to be like.
Best trolley bus system in the world? That’s a difficult question to answer, as I have unfortunately not had the luxury of travelling abroad as some other viewers. However, I especially like the trolleys in Dayton, Ohio, Philadelphia, Seattle, and Vancouver, for they’re low-floor vehicles and wheelchair accessible. They’re also electric-a big plus in a more environmentally friendly society. Some people commented on the hilly terrains in some cities. Yes, trolleys are an advantage in cities such as San Francisco, São Paulo, and Seattle, for I have indeed seen streets with massive hills. That being said, I now live in the Montreal area and have seen that some thoroughfares have huge hills. My hometown of Toronto has hilly streets, too. To my disappointment, neither Canadian city operates trolleys. (Toronto ditched its trolleys in the summer of 1993. It doesn’t look like TTC has plans to resurrect them. I know that Montreal once had streetcars, but I don’t know about trolley buses.) However, I have suggested that Montreal and other Quebec cities such as Sherbrooke turn some of their diesel bus routes into trolley routes. Having visited Sherbrooke on a few occasions, I know some streets have massive hills. Sherbrooke’s King Street is a perfect example of this observation. So, will other Canadian cities add their names to the trolley bus list? Only time will tell. Thanks for sharing a great video. (-:
MUNI's trolleybuses are used cleverly because they run on routes that run on the MUNI light rail and heritage trolley routes! The only trolleybus system I've seen in person was at the Illinois Railways museum, and an ex-King County bus, which might be the same model as those shown in this video! Kansas City used to have trolleybuses, but were abandoned in 1959. What I find neat about trolleybuses are that they were the first laarge-scale electric and hybrid vehicles! I sometimes wonder how often a driver drives off the wires!
OK, what became of Guadalajara's trolleycoach network? Disregard. Scarce information. 59 of Seattle's articulated ttc's were originally dual mode tunnel buses from the 90s rebuilt to straight electrics.
San Francisco... it Replaced Most of its Trolley Vehicles within the Last Couple of Years, I Rode the 5, with a New Flyer 7200 Series Artic, & the Old Neoplans on the 24 Line. As For Seattle, this Clip was Shot before they Replaced the Gillig Trolleys. Mexico City is Poor, they Always Receive the Hand Me Down Trolley Busses, & that Other City in Mexico has Really Old Hand Me Down Trolley Busses from CTA (Chicago), CTA Phased Out it's Trolleys by 1973.
Better energy efficiency than normal bus, but worse than that of a tram. That is, besides the fact it uses electric power instead of fuel, it consumes less of that. The infrastructure investment is lower and is suited for population densities that wouldn't justify a Light Rail or Tram system. Just pulling some overhead cables is way cheaper than also setting up tram tracks. Lastly, the lifespan of an electric motor (of a trolleybus) is around double than that of a diesel bus, 20 years vs 10 years. But the tram will always be the best eco-friendly vehicle if there's enough population and it's packed densely. It's the most expensive, both regarding vehicles and infrastructure, but it lasts 40-50 years too so it's worth it.
Advantages over other systems when used in suitable lines. 1 RAPID AND EASY operation in hilly areas like Seattle & San Fransisco. 2 Low noise and pillutiin, as in narrow Souuth Philadelphia streets. 3 Tunnel routes as in Bostin General advsntages. A-No fumes. B Smoth Ride C LONGER LIFE. Not only the motive system more thsnge. twice diesel life at less maintenance codt, but aldo because of lack if VIBRATIONS, less metal fafu
Having read here that Dayton has some battery buses, maybe the three battery buses plying Montreal's #36 Monk line interest you: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-kc5f8vfjEx8.html
@Alfred The Streetcar The Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) is not a current trolleybus system. They got rid of them back in 1993. Thank God we still have our streetcars!
I visited Ceske Budejovice in 1989, and I did not see any trolleybuses there. According to information on the web Ceske Budejovice had trolleybus systems in 1909-1914, 1948-1971, and 1991-today.
This is not the entire transit system of Philadelphia, only the trackless trolley system. Our whole transit system (SEPTA) is huge, including streetcars, buses, subways, elevated, commuter rail lines and the trackless trolleys of which there are only three remaining. There are also three suburban trolley routes and a high-speed line which runs to Norristown, PA.
