| Trolleybuses in Wellington | |||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 GO Wellington DesignLine trolleybus in February 2016 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Operation | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Locale | Wellington, New Zealand | ||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||
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.
On 29 September 1924 the first trolleybus route was inaugurated with a single AEC 602 trolleybus running from Thorndon along Hutt Road to Kaiwharawhara (then known as Kaiwarra). [1] [2] : 137
A trolleybus was chosen over an extension to the Wellington tramway system because a large water main on the route precluded tram track construction. Patronage was not very high, and as bus services in the area were introduced and expanded in the years following, patronage declined further and the service was withdrawn on 30 May 1932. [3] [4] [5]
A second and more extensive network was approved in 1945, when it was decided to gradually replace trams with trolleybuses, preferred for being more manoeuvrable and more modern. Trolleybuses were also preferred over diesel or petrol buses due to better traction on steep slopes. [1] [3] The first route opened on 20 June 1949 to Roseneath continuing beyond the Oriental Parade tram terminus. It was extended to Hataitai School in October 1949. The next route opened to Aotea Quay to serve a new Social Security Department building. It ceased ten years later when that office moved, and was notable as the only trolleybus terminus in New Zealand where trolleybuses reversed to turn round. [6] [7]
Tram conversion started in 1951 with the opening of the route to Wadestown, followed by Karori (1954), Northland (1956), Seatoun and Miramar (1958), Aro Street and Brooklyn, the latter extended beyond the tram terminus to Mornington (1960), Lyall Bay (1963) and Island Bay (1964). The building of Wellington Airport across the Rongotai isthmus required a deviation from the Coutts Street route that the trams had taken. The short Northland route closed in 1972. As late as 1984, a route was converted from diesel to electric operation, with the network reaching its maximum extent at around 50 kilometres. [1] [8] [9] In 1990 the Wadestown to Roseneath route closed. [6]
Operation of the system was privatised in 1992, when the Wellington City Council sold its transport operations to Stagecoach. [10] The council retained ownership of the system's infrastructure with Stagecoach maintaining it under contract. [11] [12] In November 2005, the trolleybus network was included in the sale of Stagecoach's New Zealand operations to Infratil. [13] [14]
The network was threatened with closure over the years, mainly on grounds of cost. In 2014, the Greater Wellington Regional Council recommended closure of the entire system. [15] Public consultations on the proposal were followed by a final decision to close the entire system by 2017. [16] [17] The published reasons included cost of infrastructure maintenance and upgrading, inflexibility of a wire linked network, plus slower speeds and less reliability than diesel buses. [18] [19] The Hataitai loop was replaced by diesel buses in October 2015. [20]
The closure was questioned after the results of the 2017 New Zealand general election. The Labour Party had gained victory by entering into a coalition with the Green Party and New Zealand First, both of the latter who were on record as saying that they wanted to upgrade and maintain trolleybus services in Wellington. However, new transport minister Phil Twyford stated that the government would not step in to save the network. Twyford claimed that the costs of paying out the demolition contracts would be far too high, which came under heavy criticism from Wellington residents and council members in support of the trolleys. [21] On 31 October 2017 the system closed. [22] [23] Work to remove the infrastructure began in October 2017 with all works scheduled for completion by late-2018. [24] [25] [26] [ needs update ]
Trolleybuses were an integral part of the Wellington bus service. In the system's last years, they were operated by NZ Bus under the GO Wellington brand. They served the southern, western, and eastern parts of Wellington, using overhead wires owned by Wellington Cable Car Limited, a subsidiary of Wellington City Council [27] and powered at 550 volts DC. [28] The steepest grade on the system was 1 in 10. [4] : 7
The following routes were operated: [29]
| Route | From | To | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Wellington railway station | Island Bay | |
| 2 | Wellington railway station | Miramar | |
| 3 | Karori Park | Lyall Bay | |
| 5 | Wellington railway station | Hataitai | converted to diesel buses October 2015 [20] |
| 6 | Wellington railway station | Lyall Bay | |
| 7 | Wellington railway station | Kingston | |
| 9 | Wellington railway station | Aro Street | |
| 10 | Wellington railway station | Wellington Zoo | |
| 11 | Wellington railway station | Seatoun | |
Routes operated all day every day, except route 6 (Monday-Friday peak hours only), 9 and 10 (Monday-Friday only, not evenings). There were insufficient trolleybuses to operate all journeys on these routes, and diesel buses operated daily. In the system's last years, some journeys on route 6 ran beyond the wires to Molesworth Street, and were operated by diesel buses, evening services were usually operated by diesel buses, and trolleybuses did not run at the weekend. [30] [31]
The main city-centre corridor was along the Golden Mile from Wellington railway station (terminus of all routes except the 3) via Lambton Quay and Willis Street (served by all routes) to Courtenay Place (served by routes 1, 2, 3, and 6).
To the west, route 3 traveled to Karori Park via Glenmore Street and the Karori Tunnel, connecting into the Golden Mile south of the railway station.
To the south-west, routes 7 and 9 ran along Willis Street (northbound), Victoria Street (southbound) before splitting – the 7 climbed the hill southwards to Brooklyn, Mornington and Kingston, the 9 ran west up the Aro Valley.
To the south, four routes ran to Newtown (1 and 3 via the Basin Reserve, 10 and 11 via Taranaki Street), with the 1 continuing south to Island Bay, the 10 terminating at Wellington Zoo, and the 3 and 11 turning east to Kilbirnie, where they met routes 2 and 6 via the bus tunnel and Hataitai. From Kilbirnie, routes 2 and 11 ran east to Hobart Street, where the 2 headed north to Miramar, and the 11 continued east to Seatoun; routes 3 and 6 ran south to Lyall Bay.
The initial service from 1924 until 1932 was operated by an AEC 602.
For the expanded network, 10 Crossley Empires were purchased in 1949. These were followed by BUT RETB/1s bodied by Commonwealth Engineering (38), Metro Cammell Weymann (52) and New Zealand Motor Bodies (19) between 1951 and 1964, the last 38 chassis being manufactured under subcontract by Scammell. [32] Sixty-eight Hawke Coachwork and Coachwork International Volvo B58s were delivered between 1981 and 1986, with 20 unused New Zealand Motor Bodies bodied Volvo B10Ms purchased from the Auckland Regional Authority after it cancelled plans to renew its network. [5] [7] [8] The B10Ms were later converted to diesel buses. [33]
A prototype DesignLine trolleybus was delivered in March 2003 followed by another two in May 2005. [34] Delivery of the 57-vehicle production series began in December 2007 and finished in September 2009. [35] [36] [37] Using some components from the Volvos, they had a greater passenger capacity than previous trolleybuses, were low-floor and incorporated other improvements. [38] They were able to operate for short distances off-wire from batteries. The electrical equipment was provided by Eletra Industrial of Brazil. [39]
In April 2016, NZ Bus announced that it would repower several buses, including all of its trolleybuses, with Wrightspeed gas-turbine hybrid powertrains. [40] [41] However this was not completed before the trolleybuses were withdrawn. [42]
| Fleet numbers | Quantity | Chassis | Axles | Body | Entered service |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | AEC 602 | 2 | DSC & Cousins | 1924 [43] |
| 1–10 | 10 | Crossley Empire | 2 | Wellington City Council | 1949–50 [44] |
| 11–48 | 38 | BUT RETB/1 | 2 | Commonwealth Engineering | 1951–56 [45] |
| 49–81 | 33 | BUT RETB/1 | 2 | Metro Cammell Weymann | 1958–59 [46] |
| 82–100 | 19 | BUT RETB/1 † | 2 | Metro Cammell Weymann | 1964 [47] |
| 101-119 | 19 | BUT RETB/1 † | 2 | New Zealand Motor Bodies | 1964 [47] |
| 120-139 | 20 | Volvo B10M | 2 | New Zealand Motor Bodies | 1983 [33] |
| 201–233 | 33 | Volvo B58 | 2 | Hawke Coachwork | 1981 [48] |
| 234–268 | 35 | Volvo B58 | 2 | Coachwork International | 1984–86 [48] |
| 301–303 | 3 | DesignLine | 2 | DesignLine | 2003–05 [49] |
| 331–387 | 57 | DesignLine | 3 | DesignLine | 2007–09 [49] |
^† manufactured under subcontract by Scammell
Vehicles were initially painted silver, until an all red livery was adopted in 1958. [7] Stagecoach applied its corporate white with orange and blue stripes livery.
Several former Wellington trolleybuses have been preserved:
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.
The Hamilton Street Railway commonly known as the HSR is a public transport agency in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. The name is a legacy of the company's early period, when public transit in Hamilton was primarily served by streetcars. Although streetcars are no longer used in the city today, the HSR operates bus and paratransit services, with a ridership of 21 million passengers a year. The HSR uses the Presto card as its method of fare payment, allowing for connections with GO Transit and other transit systems in the Greater Toronto area.
The Boston-area trolleybussystem formed part of the public transportation network serving Greater Boston in the U.S. state of Massachusetts. It opened on April 11, 1936, with a large network operating for the next quarter-century. Measured by fleet size, the Boston-area 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. After 1963, the only remaining portion was a four-route cluster operating from the Harvard bus tunnel at Harvard station, running through Cambridge, Belmont, and Watertown. The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority took over the routes in 1964.
The Wellington tramway system (1878–1964) operated in Wellington, the capital of New Zealand. The tramways were originally owned by a private company, but were purchased by the city and formed a major part of the city's transport system.
NZ Bus is New Zealand's largest bus company, operating in Auckland, Tauranga and Wellington. Formerly a subsidiary of Stagecoach Group and later Infratil and Next Capital, it is now owned by Kinetic Group.
The Wellington Region has a well developed public transport system, the most used in New Zealand. It consists of electric and diesel buses, commuter trains, ferries and a funicular. It also included trams until 1964 and trolleybuses until 2017.
GO Wellington was the brand name of Wellington City Transport Ltd, the Wellington subsidiary of NZ Bus, in New Zealand. The company was branded Stagecoach Wellington by its previous owner, the Stagecoach Group. The current name and a new livery were announced in November 2006 by NZ Bus owner Infratil.
This list collects the transport-related vehicles exhibited or owned by the Museum of Transport and Technology (MOTAT) in Auckland, New Zealand.
The Vancouver trolley bus system forms part of the TransLink public transport network serving Metro Vancouver in the Canadian province of British Columbia. Opened in 1948, the system was originally owned and operated by the British Columbia Electric Railway. By 1954, Vancouver had the largest trolley bus fleet in Canada, with 327 units, and the fleet grew to an all-time peak of 352 in early 1957. There were 19 routes by 1955 and a peak of 20 by the second quarter of 1957. The last route to open in the 1950s was the only express trolley bus service that ever existed in Canada. Several, mostly short, extensions to the system were constructed in the 1980s and later.
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. In 2022, the system had a ridership of 33,664,000, or about 116,000 per weekday as of the first quarter of 2023.
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 parallel overhead lines. As of the first quarter of 2023, the system carries riders on an average of 37,800 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.
The Santos trolleybus system forms part of the public transport network in Santos, a municipality in the state of São Paulo, Brazil. Opened on 12 August 1963, it presently comprises only one line, and, along with the two São Paulo metropolitan area trolleybus systems, is one of only three trolleybus systems still operating in Brazil.
The Philadelphia trolleybus system 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, or trackless trolleys as SEPTA calls them. The three surviving routes serve North and Northeast Philadelphia and connect with SEPTA's Market–Frankford rapid transit line.
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.
The La Chaux-de-Fonds trolleybus system forms part of the public transport network in La Chaux-de-Fonds, in the canton of Neuchâtel, Switzerland.
The Singapore trolleybus system formed part of the transportation network of Singapore from 1926 to 1962. The system was constructed between 1926 and 1927 as a replacement to the Singapore tramway network with the old tram routes converted to trolleybus routes. The network became one of the world's largest in the 1930s, with a total network length of 24.96 miles (40.17 km) and fleet of 108 trolleybuses.
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.
The Montreux/Vevey trolleybus system, also known as the Vevey–Villeneuve trolleybus line, forms part of the public transport network in Montreux and Vevey, in the canton of Vaud, Switzerland. It comprises a single 12.75 km (7.92 mi) long trolleybus route along the length of the Riviera vaudoise on the north shore of Lake Geneva.
Trolleybuses in Auckland were part of the Auckland public transport system from 1938 until 1980.
| Urban bus companies |
| ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Long distance bus companies | |||||
| Tourism bus companies | |||||
| Bus manufacturers | |||||
| Government & regulation | |||||
| History | |||||
| Infrastructure |
| ||||
| Australia |  | |
|---|---|---|
| New Zealand | ||
| United States | ||
