50 years of Trolley Buses in Wellington NZ

[David McLoughlin <davemcl@REMOVEiprolink.co.nz>]

Today was the 50th anniversary of trolleybuses in Wellington, New
Zealand.

This is a milestone at least as important as the recent 50th anniversary
of trolleybuses in Vancouver BC Canada.

Wellington is the only city in the English speaking world still with
trolleybuses outside the few in Canada and the US.

The Wellington trolleybus system is owned and operated by Stagecoach of
the UK. There are nine basic routes

1 Island Bay
2 Miramar

5  Hataitai
3  Lyall Bay
11  Seatoun
7  Kingston
8  Aro Street
10 Newtown Park

12  Karori Park  


Karori Park and Lyall Bay are through-routed in a frequent service
making it the city's longest trolleybus route. There are other
differential routes such as Miramar via Taranaki Street (9). Hataitai is
really now only a peak-hour route and Aro Street is only Monday-Friday
daytimes.

Operated by a fleet of 68 Volvo-BBC trolleys put into service from 1981
to 1986 and now well overdue for replacement.

The URL for the 50th anniversary is:

http://www.geocities.com/MotorCity/Track/2172/tbnews.htm


I was unable to attend the anniversary but I was there last week. The
trolleys had posters in them announcing the anniversary and also other
posters (hopefully) proclaiming that the trolleys "are here to stay"
into the new century.

Still waiting for a much-needed order for new trolleybuses though. It
might be forthcoming as Stagecoach likes the trolleys and they have
substantial public support. The regional council is the only major
impediment, it and its predecessors have opposed trolleys back into the
1970s and it is amazing this system has lasted so long as a result.

David McLoughlin
Auckland New Zealand

"The national budget must be balanced. The public debt must be reduced;
the arrogance of the authorities must be moderated and controlled.
Payments to foreign governments must be reduced, if the nation doesn't
want to go bankrupt. People must again learn to work, instead of  living
on public assistance." – –   Marcus Tullius Cicero, 55 B.C.