I rode on one of Wellington's Volvo trolley buses back in 2003. My only trolleybus ride.

Regards

Geoffrey

To:TramsDownUnder@...
From:robert.merchant@...
Date: Mon, 16 Nov 2009 21:50:30 +1100
Subject: [TramsDownUnder] Fw: Vale Wellington's Volvo trolley buses

Sent to me by a friend.

Bob M

Vale Wellington’s Volvo trolley buses

Unmarked, and probably unnoticed, the last revenue trip of the last of Wellington’s Volvo trolley buses is likely to take place today.

A Volvo trolley is, barring problems, scheduled to leave Karori Park at 11.05am for Lyall Bay, then run into Kilbirnie depot at 12.06pm, ending 28 years of Volvo trolley operation in the capital.

This might seem unimportant. After all, trolley buses will keep running in Wellington. A fleet of some 60 new low-floor Designline trolleys has replaced the old Volvos, hence the retirement of those old high-floor rattlers.

But it is sad there will be no celebration, or even a wake, to mark the last Volvo in passenger service. Sad, because there was no celebration, or any marking at all, of the 60th birthday of Wellington trolley bus operation on June 20 this year. Sad because the 60th birthday of a trolley bus service is a rare event in the English-speaking world and the survival of Wellington’s trolleys was extraordinary. Sad because the noisy old Volvos were the workhorse of Wellington’s bus system for so many years, and their passing will go without a mention, other than here on this blog.

Trolley buses used to be an important part of the capital’s public transport system. They replaced the city’s trams between 1949 and 1964. By the latter year, there were 119 of them, compared with the 60 of today. Then, they ran all services on the wired routes from first bus to last, seven days a week.

The Volvos were ordered in 1979 to replace the oldest first-generation trolleys, and entered service between 1981 and 1986. There were 68 in all. In 1984, 20 Ansaldo trolleys began running, taking the modern trolley fleet to 88. But the Ansaldos lasted only five years before being converted to diesel buses. Sixty of the Volvos soldiered on, older and more decrepit, and used less and less in favour of diesel buses, until a decision was made in 2005 to buy the present new fleet of Designline trolleys to replace the Volvos..

The purchase of so few new trolleys was supposedly to keep Wellington’s streets green, but that is a farce. The real reason is to allow Infratil (owner of Go Wellington) to retain a monopoly of bus services on the wired routes, which are meant to be run solely by trolley buses, but which of course they are not.

Trolley buses now run only a minority of services on the wired routes (most are run by diesel buses), and trolleys do not run at all on weekends any more, and rarely after 7pm on weekdays. The powers that be prefer to run diesel buses, despite Wellington ratepayers and taxpayers paying $9 million for a seven-day trolley service that no longer happens.

That is rather sad, as it means Wellington’s streets are very noisy because of the roar of diesel buses, especially at nights and weekends when using trolley buses would make them a quieter, better place. Much of the opposition to turning Manners Mall into a bus lane would evaporate if full-time trolley operation resumed.

Farewell, Volvos. Lest we forget.

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