Cardiff trolleybus, 1969 [image credit: David Stowell @ Wikipedia]

They’re certainly quick off the mark and quiet. As with trams the initial costs would be significant, but they do have their advantages.

They were the original electric buses but 50 years ago today saw the plug pulled on the last trolleybus in Wales, says BBC News.

Environmentally friendly and cheap, they finally succumbed to car ownership and fossil fuel on 11 January 1970.

Yet half a century later – almost to the day – local councils now see electric public transport as an answer to congestion and air pollution.

Some experts and enthusiasts even believe that shift could spark a revival for the forgotten trolleybus.

Known as the “trackless trolleys” when they first appeared on UK streets in 1911, trolleybuses became the workhorses of the public transport network.

Freed from the restrictions of tracks, taking their power from overhead cables, they provided clean, affordable and quick transport for the masses.

In Cardiff alone, more than six million journeys were taken in the first 12 months of the system opening on St David’s Day in 1942.

But the boom in private car ownership during the 1960s would spell the beginning of the end. Electricity prices rose and rapidly-growing cities soon outgrew a network of overhead cables in desperate need of investment.

When Cardiff’s trolleybus number 262 returned to the Newport Road depot for the last time in January 1970 it marked the end of an era.

However could local authorities in Wales turn back the clock amid concerns over air quality in our cities?

“It was one of those big mistakes to stop using trolleybuses,” said Stuart Cole, professor of transport at the University of South Wales.

“They were clean, quiet and the technology would only have improved, as we have seen in many European cities.

“With the current thinking over getting away from fossil fuels and dealing with the pollution in city centres, it is inevitable they will come back, and a number of local authorities are looking at that possibility.”

Continued here.

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January 11, 2020 at 05:10AM