awhile back, the montreal gazette's henry aubin wrote a column suggesting that montreal replace its busiest bus lines with electric trolleybuses. they generate no pollution, have an extremely long lifespan but are much cheaper and more flexible than trmaways. it's a good idea and i was reminded of it by a letter in today's la presse that suggested the same thing.
so why not electrify montreal's buses instead of spending hundreds of millions of dollars on a few token tramway lines? here are the benefits:
-- trolleybuses use electricity, so they don't generate pollution and would save the STM lots of fuel money in the long run.
-- trolleybuses are more flexible than trams: they don't require rails and they can manoeuvre around obstacles exactly the same as diesel buses.
-- trolleybuses cost more than regular buses, but they also last nearly twice as long and cost much less to maintain.
-- installing trolleybus infrastructure is cheap: the cost of electrifying bus lines is in the hundred of thousands, not the hundreds of millions it would take to build a tram line.
-- the latest generation of trolleybus wires are barely noticeable.
-- trolleybuses are almost completely silent: they emit a low hum when they are in motion and make no noise whatsoever when they are stopped.
-- trolleybuses are currently used in vancouver, seattle, san francisco, philadelphia, boston, lyon, marseilles and many other european cities. vancouver is currently replacing its entire fleet.
here are some photos of trolleybuses in lyon:
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