The 40th anniversary of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin making the first Moon landing reminded me I’d completely overlooked another anniversary as close to my heart as that long ago great leap for mankind. Shamefully, it is not being celebrated and indeed has not even been mentioned anywhere except on this blog, belatedly, today .
I am speaking of the 60th anniversary of the opening of Wellington’s trolley bus system, which even I overlooked.
On June 20 1949, trolley buses began gliding through the city and along Oriental Parade then up the Carlton Gore Rd hill to Roseneath. Over the following 28 years, their wires were strung through the streets to Wadestown, Hataitai, Karori, Northland, Aro St, Miramar, Seatoun, Island Bay, Lyall Bay, Newtown Park and Kingston, the latter being the last expansion of the service, in 1987, when the Route 7 wires were extended from Mornington.
Wellington’s first trolley buses were painted silver and became known as the Silver Ghosts, on account of their quietness compared with diesel buses and with the clanking trams that most of the trolley bus routes replaced. The silver trolley pictured above is one of the ghosts from the early 1950s, now preserved by fanatical gunzels (transport enthusiasts) and stored at the Karori bus depot.
Shamefully, there will be no commemoration of what is one of the English speaking world’s longest lived trolley bus systems.
Absolutely nothing marked the June 20 anniversary.
The current owners of the trolleys, Infratil, had no interest and probably didn’t even know there was such an anniversary, despite the little-used trolleys being the main reason for the huge profits the company makes from its Go Wellington operation.
The gunzels who look after the Silver Ghost and other historic trolleys stored at Karori rejected my request earlier this year to stage an anniversary tour that day (there was such a tour on the 50th birthday in 1999, supported by the former owner, Stagecoach), saying they would commemorate it at Labour Weekend.
But last month, the powers that be who hate trolleybuses decided there will be no weekend trolley bus services. The gunzels have been told they will not be allowed to hold a trolley festival at Labour Weekend, or any weekend, as trolley buses have henceforth been forbidden to run at weekends, by decree of Greater Wellington Regional Council (which actually pays out $9 million a year in public money to have trolleys run seven days a week from dawn to midnight, but that’s a story you all know already, and GWRC does not like being reminded).
This is all shameful, as it was an anniversary worth celebrating. Few trolley bus systems in the English speaking world survived for 60 years. In many Anglo places, including all of Britain, all of Australia, all of the US and Canada (barring Vancouver, Seattle, San Francisco, Dayton, Boston and Philadelphia, which still have them), and in Auckland, New Plymouth, Christchurch and Dunedin, trolley buses were just a footnote to transport history between the trams they replaced and the diesel buses that replaced the trolleys.
Some 340 cities in Europe, Asia and the Americas still operate trolley buses and they have returned to cities such as Rome that scrapped them many years ago. Currently, the world’s oldest trolley bus system is the one in Shanghai, where the first trolley rolled in 1914. The oldest system in North America is in Philadelphia, which started using trolley buses in 1923. The oldest system in western Europe is the large network of Lausanne in Switzerland, which opened in 1932. Britain’s last trolley buses ran in Bradford in 1972, though nearby Leeds looks set to be the first British city to reinstate them, as trolley buses are gaining a new popularity.
Despite the current costly purchase of some 60 new trolley buses for Wellington, this distinctive transport mode seems out of favour here, again. In 1964, the fleet reached its maximum of 119 vehicles, and though 88 new ones replaced the originals between 1981 and 1986, many of them (including 20 flash Ansaldo trolleys obtained in 1985) were scrapped after less than six years on the road, leaving about 60 of the original 68 familiar Volvos to soldier on from 1990, in a minor role in a network now dominated by diesel buses. Despite the purchase of new trolleys and the wiring of Taranaki St for trolleys in 1985 and the Kingston extension in 1987, several routes were closed, including the Northland line in 1972 and the original Roseneath and Wadestown routes in 1987.
There was a new trolley bus spring during the 1990s, when businessman Ross Martin became manager of the privatised system (bought by Stagecoach from the former owner, Wellington City Council). Ross was something of a gunzel himself. He seemed to have a boyish enthusiasm for trolley buses. During his tenure, night and weekend trolley services resumed after a 20-year absence and, in 2003 and 2005, he bought the three low-floor Designline prototypes, 301, 302 and 303, to demonstrate the abilities of modern trolley buses. I was on one of the demonstration rides provided for doubting regional councillors and he looked as happy as a pig in muck as he showed off the trolley’s features.
But though the new yellow three-axle Designline trolleys were eventually ordered as a result, they are rarely used, with most weeknight, all the weekend, and many of the weekday daytime trolley services being operated by diesel buses, many of them the oldest diesels in the fleet, just to give the fingers to passengers, and to the ratepayers and taxpayers who pay that $9 million a year for trolley buses that are hardly ever on the roads.
I put this lack of enthusiasm for trolleys down to the change of ownership in November 2005, when Stagecoach sold out to Infratil, which is happy to have the exclusive GWRC contracts for the wired routes, but finds it too much bother actually to run trolleys on them, especially as there are no penalties for running diesel buses on the wired routes, and many benefits to the company and its drivers for using diesels, the older the better.
Given Greater Wellington Regional Council’s lack of interest in requiring the use of trolley buses that its contract with Go Wellington legally demands, and given Go Wellington’s preference to run elderly, cheap diesel buses on the trolley routes, and given Wellington City Council’s sabotaging of the overhead wire maintenance contracts (used as the excuse not to run weekend trolleys) I very much doubt there will be a 70th anniversary of Wellington’s remarkable trolley buses.
But hey, as I say, predictions usually turn out to be wrong.
19 Comments
July 22, 2009 at 11:58 pm
Dear,
I was rather disappointed to hear of absent minded
(people) forgetting about the 60th anniversary of
trolley bus operation in Wellington!
This is rather unacceptable-I do say so as Iam a
bus enthusiast and a member of the omnibus
society. Trolleys are unique to Welly as they are to
the
rest of the country and Welly should be proud to have them. As for me, I HATE diesels-at least the
ones that Go Wellington operate-so much so that
I refuse to use them! They SUCK! and they’re
replusive. Reading the above report made me quite
angry. I feel that there will be a trolley bus
anniversary later this year-speaking from a trolley
bus enthusiast’s point of view.
July 23, 2009 at 8:57 am
You really have to wonder, when the MSM media make such a fuss over governement conferences and whatnot “costing the taxpayer” measly sums such as $250K.
But when the RATEpayer (i.e. a smaller base) is forced to put up with totally unsatisfactory (even illegal?) lack of service that costs them $9M, where are the screaming headlines?
Even more pathetic is the failure of GOWellington to acknowledge – let alone celebrate – the 60th anniversary in appropriate fashion. Their mantra must be ‘If we ignore it long enough, perhaps the people will forget too’.
Sad.
July 24, 2009 at 12:21 pm
I didnt know that the term ‘gunzel’ existed until I read this post, Poneke. Thank you for adding another word to my vocabulary.
July 24, 2009 at 12:32 pm
It’s a down-under equivalent to the Anoraks in Britain and the Foamers of the US. It was coined in Sydney many years ago and has spread to the extent that when Billy Connolly was filmed getting on a Melbourne tram as part of his World Tour, he remarked it was full of gunzels.
July 25, 2009 at 12:19 am
The Ansaldos can still be seen every day in the Wellington CBD, and in the Newlands, Johnsonville and Porirua areas. Except, these days they are painted green and are powered by diesel engine rather than by electric motor.
After they were withdrawn, they were put in storage and passed to Stagecoach as part of the sale of Wellington City Transport. Several years ago they were brought out of storage, their “trolley bus bits” were removed and under-floor diesel engines (Volvo, I think) were installed. Most of the (former) Ansaldos are now with Mana Coach Services and Newlands Coach Service.
July 30, 2009 at 2:03 pm
I don’t know that I share your love for trolley buses. They’re slow (often crawling along at 30 kph), prone to losing their poles on Wellington’s windy and winding roads, and if there is a loss of mains electricity (such as in a major earthquake) disrupt traffic and emergency services. And, yes, their overhead wires are ugly.
I agree, old diesels are dogs. But compared with diesels that meet the latest Euro standards, how do the trolleys really stack up? Is it more efficient to generate electricity at some remote site and send it via the mains to power a bus, or is it more efficient to burn fuel in a modern diesel engine? What are the environmental footprints of the two modes?
Are the downsides of trolleys outweighed by the benefits? I don’t know. Perhaps someone would like to convince me with some hard data.
August 4, 2009 at 12:32 pm
As an interested overseas observer, I might add that Edmonton, Alberta seems to have launched trolley buses in 1939, which would be ten years before Wellington.
http://www.trolleybuses.net/edm/edm.htm
ETS’ system was closed suddenly in May 2009.
August 9, 2009 at 8:07 pm
Its about time someone pulled finger and started making a noise about this. Sooner or later Both Go Wellington, the Wellinton Regional Council and The Wellington City Council are all going to come out with the fact that the continuance of the trolley buses cannot be justified because of the higher operating cost and economic pressures, which they will say are shown by the fact that NZ Bus prefers to put diesels onto electrified routes. Thus Wellington will loose and essential part of its infrastructure thanks to a greedy corporate bludger and visionless leaders all too inetrested in themselves to think about the long term needs of the capital. Remember, Wellintonians still own their trolley bus wires. There is no reason therefore that if NZ Bus is not willing to maintain the trolley bus service that such a service cannot be opened up to other players. They would need to provide their own depots no doubt but if a significant other player was found in the Transport Market whom was willing to invest in new buses and facillitys then we might actually see NZ Bus get off its arse so as to maintain the trolley service which at the present time is slowly fading into the history, that $9 million a year subsidy for the trolleys eventually becoming a “Notional” Trolley bus payment in much the same way as the former Nelson “Notional” Railway whereby the Railway line was torn up, and road services substituted at subsidised prices. The same scenario could happene here in wellington with modern low floor disels being substituted along trolley bus routes as “Notional” Trolley buses. Think about it.
August 10, 2009 at 3:33 pm
Take all trolley buses to the tip. Talk about a thing of the past!!! Useless traffic jam creators is all they are.
August 10, 2009 at 8:30 pm
Come on guys. If there’s a good rational reason to have trolley buses, let’s hear it. Supporting a mode of public transport because of sentimental attachment ain’t a goer.
Tesla suggests that trolleys are more costly to run. If so, that will almost certainly be because of their bigger carbon footprints, which means even more cost in our low carbon future.
August 11, 2009 at 1:23 pm
Tesla’s point about “the continuance of the trolley buses cannot be justified because of the higher operating cost and economic pressures”
Well if they aren’t going to continue them, can they give our $9M/year back please?
August 11, 2009 at 4:01 pm
@Charlie,
These new trolley buses have a battery backup, so it mystifies me why they are left where they stop. I thought the whole point of having batteries was they could move out of the way and be parked safely when there was a power failure.
@Trevor Walton,
How does costing more to run make the leap to having a larger carbon footprint?
———
To add some non-emotive balance – 2 things that the trollies have over diseasls are they are quiet and they don’t belch fumes.
Both of these pollutants I have to endure from diseasal buses whilst waiting for my bus to arrive.
August 11, 2009 at 5:08 pm
You are right Seph, trolleys are quieter than diesels. But modern Euro diesels don’t belch fumes and are not noisy enough to cause offence. (Which is not to say that the Council doesn’t have poorly tuned, noisy, smokey old diesels which should be upgraded or replaced.)
Re the link between cost and carbon footprints, in many carbon footprinting studies, especially those involving transport, cost is a rough proxy for energy & fossil fuel use. But not always — which is why I am asking if anyone knows of a study that demonstrates that trolleys are less harmful to the environment than modern diesels.
Without a compelling environmental argument, trolleys should be scrapped if they cost more to operate. Sentimental attachment could be satisfied by enthusiasts visiting QE2 Park or Motat.
August 22, 2009 at 12:23 pm
Surely anyone can see that nights and weekends are out since you have to have the maintenance/ repair crews sitting around if any of the wires break.
August 22, 2009 at 10:36 pm
Surely anyone can see that nights and weekends are out since you have to have the maintenance/ repair crews sitting around if any of the wires break.
Um, you have all this wrong.
The wires are there 24/7/365 and need to be fixed at any time if they fall down or have some other mishap.
The trolley buses themselves rarely cause the mishap. Overheight trucks are what cause most problems and they often happen in the middle of the night when no trolley is running.
The overhead wire crews have traditionally worked Monday to Friday, and sometimes on Saturday, in daylight hours. They used to actually maintain and upgrade the wires in these hours of duty, as well as fixing any wire-down problem that occurred during their normal hours.
They have always had a callback system if there is a wire-down problem at 3am.
What has changed is that the maintenance contract has been given to an Australian company that is now refusing to attend to any trolley bus caused wire problem out of hours, even though this company’s staff is on call 24/7/365, and GWRC is using this as an excuse not to run trolleys at weekends.
This is a major blunder on the part of WCC and is likely to have been deliberate.
Until the contract change, Go Wellington staff looked after the wires and did not charge the hundreds of thousands now being demanded for looking after the wires during weekend trolley operation. Formerly, they just simply looked after them.
Where is the Audit Office?
August 24, 2009 at 10:59 pm
This kind of wellingtonista incompetence is a major cause of the income gap with Australia, IMHO. I wrote about this a few weeks ago.
http://vibenna.wordpress.com/2009/08/06/mind-the-gap/
August 25, 2009 at 11:11 am
I love trolley buses. I miss your blogging. and gee, I must be the only person in wgtn who doesn’t know who you are. best wishes for your new home.
August 31, 2009 at 1:43 pm
[...] through the city streets – although with one advantage against Poneke’s much loved trolley buses (mine too, actually): that they will [...]
November 7, 2009 at 8:30 pm
I agree trolleys are quiter, but the modern diesels aren’t too bad. But there is a certain charm to trolley buses. I barely notice the wires to be honest.
And to be fair, I’ve seen some pretty ratty looking old trolley buses around as well, still in old Stagecoach colours.