Trolley buses in Vancouver

Last updated
Vancouver trolley bus system
Vancouver E40LFR trolleybus 2214.jpg
Operation
Locale Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Open16 August 1948
Operator(s)
Infrastructure
Electrification 600 V DC parallel overhead lines
Website www.coastmountainbus.com

The Vancouver trolley bus system forms part of the TransLink public transport network serving Metro Vancouver in the Canadian province of British Columbia. In operation since 1948, the system presently comprises 13 routes and is managed by the Coast Mountain Bus Company, a subsidiary of TransLink. It uses a fleet of 262 trolley buses, of which 74 are articulated vehicles.

Contents

History

Following a formal opening ceremony on 13 August 1948, [1] regular service on Vancouver's first trolley bus routes began on 16 August 1948, [2] [3] operated by the British Columbia Electric Railway (BCER). [1] Two routes opened on that day, 6 Fraser and 15 Cambie, and routes 5 Robson and 8 Davie followed later the same year. [4] All of these first routes had been conversions of streetcar lines except for the Cambie route. Conversion of several more streetcar and motorbus routes quickly followed, and by 1953, the trolley bus system had 16 routes. [4] Three more trolley bus lines were created in 1955, when the last streetcar line, Hastings, closed and was replaced by the 14 Hastings trolley bus route and two branches, routes 16 Renfrew and 24 Nanaimo. This brought the network to what was, for several years, its maximum extent, with 19 routes. [4]

Preserved CCF-Brill T44 No. 2040 Vancouver CCF-Brill T44 2040 at VTC.jpg
Preserved CCF-Brill T44 No. 2040

The service was provided by CCF-Brill trolley buses, with 82 of model T44 acquired in 1947 and 1948, and 245 of the larger model T48 (and variants T48A and T48SP) acquired between 1949 and 1954. [4] With the delivery of the last new Brill trolley bus, in January 1954, Vancouver had the largest trolley bus fleet in Canada, 327 units. [5]

The fleet later included 25 1947-built Pullman-Standard trolley buses acquired secondhand from Birmingham, Alabama, which entered service in March 1957. [6] However, drivers considered the Pullmans awkward to operate, and the vehicles were found to be surplus to the company's needs; they were taken out of service in 1960 [6] and scrapped in 1961. [4] In the mid-1970s, the remaining T44-model trolley buses were retired, and in their place 50 new trolley buses were acquired from Flyer Industries. Flyer Model E800s were new vehicles except for the propulsion system, which used recycled General Electric equipment [7] from the earlier Brill T-44s. The Flyer E800s were delivered in late 1975 and 1976. Their use of recycled 1940s electrical equipment resulted in a shorter lifespan, and they were withdrawn in 1985, but around 25 returned to service for Expo 86, [8] and the last few were in occasional service until January 1987.

One of the 50 Flyer E800 vehicles, built in 1975-1976 but equipped with recycled propulsion equipment Vancouver Flyer E800 trolleybus on Granville Mall in 1983.jpg
One of the 50 Flyer E800 vehicles, built in 1975–1976 but equipped with recycled propulsion equipment

In the early 1980s, the system acquired 245 new Flyer E901A/E902 trolley buses. [9] These began to enter service in mid-1982, gradually replacing the CCF-Brill vehicles. The last use of a Brill trolley bus in service occurred on 25 March 1984. [10] After withdrawal of the last E800s, in early 1987, Flyer E901A/E902 vehicles made up the whole of the Vancouver trolley bus fleet for almost 20 years. E902 No. 2937 was irreparably damaged by an electrical fire in 1987, reducing the total number of trolley buses to 244. [11]

Several extensions to the system were constructed and opened in 1986, in connection with the opening of the SkyTrain rapid transit system. Most were short diversions of routes at their outer ends, to terminate at new SkyTrain stations, including Nanaimo station, 29th Avenue station [8] and Joyce station, [8] but the extension of route 19 Kingsway to Metrotown was 5 kilometres (3.0 mi) long and was the first extension of Vancouver's trolley bus system outside the city of Vancouver, into Burnaby. [12] An extension from Blanca Street to the University of British Columbia opened in September 1988. [12]

From 2005 to 2009, the fleet was renewed again. New Flyer Industries in Winnipeg won the contract for the supply of the new vehicles, with electrical equipment by the German company Vossloh Kiepe. [3] In December 2008, 80 of the old Flyer E901A/E902 buses were sold to the Mendoza trolleybus system in Argentina. [13] Vancouver now has a fleet of 262 low-floor trolley buses, supplied under the New Flyer contract between 2005 and the end of 2009. [3]

Services

Flyer E902 trolley bus on the Granville Mall in 1985 Flyer trolleybuses on the Granville Mall in 1985.jpg
Flyer E902 trolley bus on the Granville Mall in 1985

The 13 routes comprising the present Vancouver trolley bus system are:

To be reinstated (2025): [14] [15]

Current fleet

Vancouver's current fleet of trolley buses, all built by New Flyer, is made up of the following types:

UnitsYearModelLengthTypeImageNotes
12005E40LF12 metres (40 ft)low-floor trolley bus, demonstratorFirst New Flyer bus with "LFR" styling
1872006–2007E40LFR12 metres (40 ft)low-floor trolley bus Stanley Park Loop, July 2011.jpg
742006–2009E60LFR18 metres (60 ft)low-floor articulated trolley bus Vancouver trolley bus - New Flyer E60LFR.jpg

The original order for these trolley buses, placed in late 2003, was for 188 conventional and 40 articulated buses. [16] The first, a model E40LF, was delivered in July 2005, [17] and the rest of the 40-footers, now designated E40LFR, were delivered between August 2006 [18] and September 2007. [19]

The first articulated arrived in Vancouver in January 2007. [20] TransLink decided to order an additional 34 articulated units, making the total 74, and delivery of the 73 production-series E60LFR units took place between October 2007 and autumn 2009.

Preservation

Three of Vancouver's trolley buses and one former trolley bus that was converted to diesel running have been preserved by the Transit Museum Society. [2] The operational ones see occasional use for special events and on enthusiast fan trips. Several Brill trolley buses are stored in the ghost town of Sandon awaiting restoration. [21] The Sandon buses were acquired from the former fleets of Vancouver, Calgary, Saskatoon, and Regina. [22]

YearBuilderModelPreservedImageNotes
1947CCF-BrillT442040 Vancouver CCF-Brill T44 2040 at VTC II.jpg
1954CCF-BrillT48A2416 Vancouver Trolleybus 2416 - Fan Trip. (30476529347).jpg
1976FlyerE8002649 Race Special (2286992019).jpg Preserved 2649 was converted into a diesel bus in the 1980s but retained its trolley poles for winter wire-de-icing duty [7]
1983FlyerE9022805 Marpole Loop -2 (2452998587).jpg Not operable; stripped of most of its electrical components by thieves in 2010 [23]

See also

Related Research Articles

Trolleybus Electric bus that draws power from dual overhead wires

A trolleybus is an electric bus that draws power from dual overhead wires using spring-loaded trolley poles. Two wires, and two trolley poles, are required to complete the electrical circuit. This differs from a tram or streetcar, which normally uses the track as the return path, needing only one wire and one pole. They are also distinct from other kinds of electric buses, which usually rely on batteries. Power is most commonly supplied as 600-volt direct current, but there are exceptions.

Coast Mountain Bus Company Bus transit services operator in Metro Vancouver

Coast Mountain Bus Company (CMBC) is the contract operator for bus transit services in Metro Vancouver and is a wholly owned subsidiary of the South Coast British Columbia Transportation Authority, known locally as TransLink, the entity responsible for public transit in the region. The buses form part of the integrated transit network of the Lower Mainland.

Trolleybuses in Greater Boston

The Boston-area trolleybussystem forms part of the public transportation network serving Greater Boston in the U.S. state of Massachusetts. It opened on April 11, 1936, and since 1964 has been operated by the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA). It currently includes two physically isolated networks: one serving the towns of Cambridge, Belmont, and Watertown, the other – the Silver Line (Waterfront) – located in the city of Boston proper. Prior to 1964, several additional trolleybus lines were in operation in Boston proper. Measured by fleet size, the system was the third-largest trolleybus system in the United States at its peak, with only the Chicago and Atlanta systems having more trolleybuses than Boston's 463.

The Transit Museum Society of British Columbia (TRAMS) is dedicated to the restoration and preservation of decommissioned transit vehicles in Vancouver and the adjoining areas. Based in Burnaby, TRAMS currently has a fleet of thirteen operational vehicles and two non-operational. These vehicles were previously in use by both public and private operating companies between 1937 and 2010.

Trolleybuses in Wellington

Trolleybuses in Wellington were part of the Wellington public transport system from 1924 until 1932 and again from 1949 until 2017. It was the last trolleybus system operating commercially in Oceania and the last major system operating in a country where driving is on the left side of the road.

Electric Transit, Inc.

Electric Transit, Inc. (ETI) was a joint venture between the Škoda group in the Czech Republic and AAI Corporation in the United States which made trolleybuses for the Dayton and San Francisco trolleybus systems, constructing a total of 330 trolleybuses. ETI was formed in 1994, and ownership was divided as 65% by Škoda and 35% by AAI. The latter was a wholly owned subsidiary of United Industrial Corporation. Up to that time, Škoda had built more than 12,000 trolleybuses since 1935, but none for cities outside Europe and Asia. The ETI joint venture was dissolved in 2004, shortly after an unsuccessful bid to supply trolleybuses to Vancouver.

Servicio de Transportes Eléctricos

Servicio de Transportes Eléctricos del Distrito Federal (STE) is a public transport agency responsible for the operation of all trolleybus and light rail services in Mexico City. As its name implies, its routes use only electrically powered vehicles. It was created on 31 December 1946 and is owned by the Mexican Federal District government. STE is overseen by a broader Federal District authority, Secretaría de Transportes y Vialidad, which also regulates the city's other public transport authorities, including Sistema de Transporte Colectivo, Red de Transporte de Pasajeros del Distrito Federal and Metrobús, as well as other forms of transportation in the district. STE's passenger vehicle fleet consists exclusively of trolleybuses and light rail vehicles, and in 2007 its network carried 88 million passengers, of which 67 million were on trolleybus services and 21 million on light rail.

Trolleybuses in San Francisco

The San Francisco trolleybus system forms part of the public transportation network serving San Francisco, in the state of California, United States. Opened on October 6, 1935, it presently comprises 15 lines, and is operated by the San Francisco Municipal Railway, commonly known as Muni, with around 300 trolleybuses. In San Francisco, these vehicles are also known as "trolley coaches", a term that was the most common name for trolleybuses in the United States in the middle decades of the 20th century.

Trolleybuses in Lausanne

The Lausanne trolleybus system forms part of the public transport network of Lausanne, in the canton of Vaud, Switzerland. The system has been in operation since 1932 and is the third-oldest surviving trolleybus system in the world, after those of Shanghai and Philadelphia.

Trolleybuses in Seattle Electric transit system serving Seattle, Washington

The Seattle trolleybus system forms part of the public transportation network in the city of Seattle, Washington, operated by King County Metro. Originally opened on April 28, 1940, the network consists of 15 routes, with 174 trolleybuses operating on 68 miles (109 km) of two-way overhead wires. As of spring 2016, the system carries riders on an average of 73,200 trips per weekday, comprising about 18 percent of King County Metro’s total daily ridership. At present in Seattle, a very common alternative term for trolleybus is trolley.

Trolleybuses in Dayton

The Dayton trolleybus system forms part of the public transportation network serving Dayton, in the state of Ohio, United States. Opened on April 23, 1933, it presently comprises seven lines, and is operated by the Greater Dayton Regional Transit Authority, with a fleet of 54 trolleybuses.

Trolleybuses in Philadelphia

The Philadelphia trolleybus system, or trackless trolley system as it is known by its operator, forms part of the public transportation network serving Philadelphia, in the state of Pennsylvania, United States. It opened on October 14, 1923, and is now the second-longest-lived trolleybus system in the world. One of only five such systems currently operating in the U.S., it presently comprises three lines, and is operated by the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA), with a fleet of 38 trolleybuses. The three surviving routes serve North and Northeast Philadelphia and connect with SEPTA's Market–Frankford rapid transit line.

Trolleybuses in Shanghai

The Shanghai trolleybus system is a system of trolleybuses forming part of the public transport network in the city of Shanghai, China. Of more than 300 trolleybus systems in operation worldwide, the Shanghai system is the oldest. The system turned 100 years old in November 2014 and was the first trolleybus system anywhere in the world to reach that milestone.

Trolleybuses in Mendoza

The Mendoza trolleybus system is part of the public transport network in Mendoza, the capital city of Mendoza Province, Argentina. It is owned by the provincial government.

Trolley buses in Edmonton

The Edmonton trolley bus system formed part of the public transport network in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada between 1939 and 2009. Operated by Edmonton Transit System (ETS), the system had, at its peak, a fleet of 137 trolley buses, and a total route length of 127 km (79 mi).

Trolleybuses in Fribourg

The Fribourg trolleybus system forms part of the public transport network in Fribourg, capital of the canton of Fribourg, Switzerland. The system also serves the neighbouring municipalities of Villars-sur-Glâne and Givisiez, using one line in each case.

Trolleybuses in St. Gallen

The St. Gallen trolleybus system forms part of the public transport network of St. Gallen, the capital city of the canton of St. Gallen, Switzerland.

As of 2012 there were around 300 cities or metropolitan areas where trolleybuses were operated, and more than 500 additional trolleybus systems have existed in the past. For complete lists of trolleybus systems by location, with dates of opening and closure, see List of trolleybus systems and the related lists indexed there.

As of 2017, King County Metro operates the 10th largest fleet of buses in the United States, with a total of 1,540 buses.

BRT Marrakesh

BRT Marrakesh is a bus rapid transit system that is also partly trolleybus in Marrakesh, Morocco. It opened on 29 September 2017. The system is officially known as Bus à Haut Niveau de Service de Marrakech, which equates to the English term Bus Rapid Transit, or BRT, of Marrakesh. Although the buses are equipped to operate as trolleybuses, only part of the system is fitted with overhead wiring for trolleybuses, and the vehicles operated on batteries over the other sections.

References

  1. 1 2 Kelly and Francis, p. 102.
  2. 1 2 Murray, Alan (2000). World Trolleybus Encyclopaedia, pp. 78, 148. Yateley, Hampshire, UK: Trolleybooks. ISBN   0-904235-18-1.
  3. 1 2 3 "Trolleybus city: Vancouver [Kanada]". TrolleyMotion. Retrieved 11 November 2018.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 Sebree, Mac; and Ward, Paul (1974). The Trolley Coach in North America, pp. 338–342. Los Angeles: Interurbans. LCCN 74-20367.
  5. ↑ Kelly and Francis, p. 103.
  6. 1 2 Kelly and Francis, p. 106.
  7. 1 2 McIntyre, Angus (January–February 1999). "Vancouver Celebrates 50 Years". Trolleybus Magazine No. 223, pp. 3–5. ISSN   0266-7452.
  8. 1 2 3 Trolleybus Magazine No. 148 (July–August 1986), p. 92. ISSN   0266-7452.
  9. ↑ "Vancouver Brill Farewell". Trolleybus Magazine No. 134 (March–April 1984), p. 41.
  10. ↑ Trolleybus Magazine No. 135 (May–June 1984), p. 69.
  11. ↑ Trolleybus Magazine No. 191 (September–October 1993), p. 131.
  12. 1 2 Kelly and Francis, p. 110–111.
  13. ↑ Pabillano, Jhenifer (December 8, 2008). "Retired trolleys make their way to Mendoza". TransLink. Retrieved 24 September 2017.
  14. ↑ Susan Lazaruk. "TransLink taking trolley buses off busy Broadway for next five years". Vancouver Sun . Retrieved 2020-06-22.
  15. ↑ Susan Lazaruk. "TransLink taking trolley buses off busy Broadway for next five years". The Province . Retrieved 2020-06-22.
  16. ↑ Trolleybus Magazine No. 254 (March–April 2004), p. 43. ISSN   0266-7452.
  17. ↑ Trolleybus Magazine No. 263 (September–October 2005), p. 117.
  18. ↑ Trolleybus Magazine No. 270 (November–December 2006), p. 135.
  19. ↑ Trolleybus Magazine No. 277 (January–February 2008), p. 15
  20. ↑ Trolleybus Magazine No. 273 (May–June 2007), p. 62.
  21. ↑ McElroy, Justin (June 23, 2014). "Ghost town mysteries: the old trolley buses of Sandon, B.C." Global News. Retrieved 6 February 2019.
  22. ↑ "Brill Trolley Bus Collection". Sandon BC. Retrieved 6 February 2019.
  23. ↑ Trolleybus Magazine No. 292 (July–August 2010), p. 88.

Books

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.