Having lived in an ancient city with trolleybuses, the overhead stuff at junctions is pretty horrible, even to somebody like me who thinks that OHW isn't an issue. Tram junctions have nothing on it.

However, the reasons for dispensing with it are more prosaic. The development of trolleybus technology in recent years has been such that the need for power infrastructure is progressively being reduced - thus less of it to erect and maintain, which saves money, and a little bit more flexibility for the buses around obstacles and for overtaking if required. Raising and lowering of poles is done from the driver's seat and within the time of a stop dwell (or on the move in the case of lowering). It's proving to be a flexible technology that is marvellously capable of adapting without abandoning its basic principles.

Just what we need to phase out the diesel bus ..... if the costs can be got down and part of that is the cost of infrastructure. The other cost is the buses themselves which are very expensive, much more than diesel buses, but the maintenance costs are much lower and they have a longer life. Then there's the electricity pricing to negotiate. If the total financial equation comes out favourably, then you're on the way to pursuading bus operators to electrify.

Tony P
---InTramsDownUnder@..., <bblunt@...> wrote :

I don't believe there are any known medical conditions resulting from "visual pollution", which is more than can be said for other forms.

BB

----- Original Message -----
From:
TramsDownUnder@...

To:
"TramsDownUnder@yahoogroups.com" TramsDownUnder@...>
Cc:

Sent:
Wed, 18 Oct 2017 20:00:17 +1100
Subject:
Re: [TramsDownUnder] Wellington update

On 18 Oct 2017, at 2:01 pm, prescottt@... mailto:prescottt@... [TramsDownUnder] TramsDownUnder@... mailto:TramsDownUnder@yahoogroups.com>; wrote:

A side benefit of this method, incidentally, is that it only involves unobtrusive, straight sections of wire and removes the need for the ugly tangles of junctions and turnouts which are the biggest obstacle to promoting the use of trolleybuses in cities.

I reckon pandering to the hand-wringers who bitch and whine about practical and efficient OHW, whether for trams or TBs, is where the problem starts, with the shills and salesmen all standing by with “ready made solutions” and orders waiting to be signed. This is what has led to the APS farce in Sydney and this absurd debacle in Wellington.

If places as diverse as San Francisco and Zurich can live with a bit of copper hanging in the air it can’t be a real problem - looking at wires beats breathing diesel exhaust.

Tony G