New Vancouver Trolleys

REPLACE OLD TROLLEY BUSES, OFFICIALS SAY
A $300-million plan to replace the city's aging fleet of non-polluting buses is touted by TransLink staff.

Harold Munro, Vancouver Sun

An aging fleet of electric trolley buses, the backbone of transit service in Vancouver for two decades, should be replaced and expanded at a cost of more than $300 million, regional transportation officials say.

Only seven North American cities use trolley buses, the mainstay of urban transit systems before the Second World War.

Today, Vancouver's fleet of 244 electric-powered vehicles is the second largest after San Francisco's famous trolleys.

A staff report that goes to the TransLink board next week recommends phasing out all of these vehicles over the next few years, replacing them with 285 to 325 new trolleys by 2006. The total cost is estimated at $314 million to $321 million - depending on the size and design of the fleet.

The proposal represents a greater investment in trolleys than that approved last year in TransLink's strategic transportation plan, the blueprint for road and transit improvements through 2005. The strategic plan calls for the purchase of 250 trolley buses at a cost of $200 million to replace the existing fleet.

The new report does not explain where the money will come from to pay for these additional buses.

The report does say that Vancouver's existing trolleys, commissioned in the early 1980s, are nearing the end of their operational life.

These electric vehicles are 28 per cent more expensive than traditional diesel buses, but trolleys boast significant social and environmental benefits.

A diesel bus is more than twice as noisy rumbling down the street as a trolley ,and emits on average 100 tonnes of carbon dioxide per year.

A trolley bus has zero emissions.

TransLink may be able to offset some of the additional costs of going electric through the use of so-called carbon credits.

The international Kyoto Treaty, which aims to curb global warming by reducing greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, encourages a worldwide trades in emissions.

Most Canadian energy utilities are trying to make carbon trades, which basically the purchase of avoided carbon dioxide emissions form others to offset their own high emissions.

By opting for electric trolleys over diesel buses, TransLink would be in a position to sell its carbon dioxide savings each year to an energy company.

The current cost of carbon trading is about $3 per tonne, which means TransLink could earn roughly $90,000 annually through trades.

The report notes the value of a tonne of carbon could increase if taxes or penalties are levied by the federal government on producers of greenhouse gases.

However, trolleys are less flexible than diesel buses because they can only travel on routes with special overhead wires.

Locally, trolleys are confined to 309 kilometres of roadway, almost entirely within the City of Vancouver, with short extensions to the University of B.C. and Metrotown in Burnaby.
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This page last updated 16 JN 2000