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ELECTRIC BUSES A CENTURY OLD IDEA History of the Trolleybuses

„ DALLS SHERRINGHAM

WITH environmentally friendly electric buses now all the rage in Western Sydney’s public transport network, most readers would not know that the city had two electric bus systems almost a century ago.

And at the time they were designed to be extended across the city to replace the tramway and expand into fast growing areas like Parramatta and the Inner West.

They would have provided a cheap, pollution free answer to Sydney’s growing smog, traffic jams and parking problems.

Called ‘Trolleybuses”, they were te perfect answer to electric transport, being much cheaper to install compared to trams and light rail and able to run in the normal flow of traffic.

They were introduced in the inner city, running to Potts Point in 1934 and from Rockdale to Sans-Souci. This became the famous system with giant, green double deck buses able to move large crowds quickly and effectively.

Inexplicably, they were removed in 1960 at the same time as the much-loved trams and replaced with smaller diesel buses belching black smoke. That proved to be a disaster.

Recent research overseas by Seattle and San Francisco transit operators showed that trolleybus systems were still cheaper to run than electric and hybrid buses and much cheaper than light rail.

In 1933, prior to the opening of the Inner City system, the Sydney Morning Herald reported:

“Already Increasing attention Is being paid by the authorities In several Australian capital cities to the trolleybus and the advantages claimed for its operation In dense traffic.

Perth is putting Into service several six-wheeled vehicles, each capable

The first electric trolleybus.

of seating 38 people, and the Sydney authorities have ordered two single deck six-wheelers, to seat 34 passengers. These vehicles have electric traction, and take their energy from overhead cables.

The important difference between trolleybuses and trams is that the trolleybus, which is fitted with large sectioned pneumatic tyres, does not run on rails, and is free to pull into the kerb to pick up and drop passengers.

This facility avoids checking the flow of traffic (a condition which arises when trams are operated down the centre of a street). Notable features of the trolleybus are its quietness, smooth running, rapid acceleration, high average speed, and quick deceleration.

In Great Britain the use of the electric trolleybus Is developing steadily, 21 municipal systems being In operation.

All told, 513 units are in service, representing an outlay of £1,913,099. During 1932 they carried 145 million passengers, approximately 283,000 people per vehicle per annum, at a running cost of /10.5 a mile. The municipal tramways cost /12.74 a mile unit for the same period, and transported 326,700 passengers per vehicle. The respective average dally totals of people carried per unit were:-Trolleybus, 785; tramway, 907.’

The trolleybus could run forever and never need refueling or recharging yet the city and state’s civic fathers of the 1950s and 60s, blinded by the rapid growth in the ownership of motor cars and the cheapness of diesel fuel, decided electric vehicles were out.

With diesel now costing over $2.30 a litre, both the trams and trolleybuses would be priceless today.

There was great public outcry when the State Govt started closing tram routes including the independent Enfield to Mortlake system via Burwood.

Instead of adopting the switch to the less comfortable double decker diesels, many commuters went out and bought cars.

The tram ran down Coronation Pde, one of the primes streets in the west and was electrified wat back in 1912. It allowed locals to link with rail and ferry services with trams running every five minutes in peak hour, but was closed in 1948.

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