Just curious because I ride the trolleybuses a lot and they seem, at least to me, like they’re already the solution to electrifying bus transit in Vancouver. What was Translink’s rationale for going with battery busses instead of adding trolley wires to new routes and electrifying using a method they already have experience with instead of relying on proprietary and presumably very expensive fast charging points?
What do you think? Should they still go with trolleybuses for electrification or use battery busses instead?
Actually, does anyone know how Translink’s battery electrification project is coming along? I haven’t seen the battery busses on the Marine Drive corridor for a while and can’t tell if they’re still running them. Is the pilot project over and do they plan on implementing it for real?
I’m a complete layman on this, but one disadvantage of trolley buses is that it’s hard to accommodate temporary route changes, which may happen a lot on specific regions that need lots of construction/repair or have events like scheduled pedestrian-only closures.
I love them, though, would like to see more and I’m sure there are plausible expansions to be made.