Former Wellington Regional Councillor Paul Bruce carries on the lonely battle against deaf ears to stop the imminent demise of Wellington's modern trolley bus system with an article in today's Dominion Post newspaper.

Reviewing overseas developments, he asks: "Does Wellington want to remembered as the only city to close down a trolleybus system after the Paris Agreement on Climate Change?"

The article is illustrated with a photo of a Salburg Solaris trolley. The photo in the online edition is much superior to that in the print issue, which only has the front section and is such unrecognisable as a trolley.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/comment/95728286/paul-bruce-retaining-the-trolley-buses--not-too-late-for-a-rethink https://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/comment/95728286/paul-bruce-retaining-the-trolley-buses--not-too-late-for-a-rethink

The regional council plans to close the system on October 31 despite tens of millions having been spent on new K&M wires in the past five years. However trolley operation is already sporadic. A gunzel "farewell tour" of the system was held last week, in case entire routes close before the closure date.

Wellington's modern, low-floor, three-axle Designline trolleys are being replaced with second-hand two-axle diesel buses surplus to requirements in Auckland.

Alan Wickens has produced a special edition "farewell tour" of his monthly Under the Wires PDF e-zine. Ask him for a copy (or to go on his mailing list for the last few months of Wellington's trolleys) atwickens@...

david mcloughlin, Wellington NZ