Trolleybus or Rubber tyred tramway

Stephen15

Why arent these being muted as possible transport solutions for smaller cities like Galway, Cork or Limerick or even as a potential alternative to the Swords/Airport BRT.

Trolleybuses which are buses powered by overhead wires were popular during the last century Belfast had one for example and many cities in Russia have retained them aswell a few cities in the US, Greece and Italy a few cities in France have seen the enviromental benefits and re introduced them and they could be used similar to a BRT good idea for the Swords BRT and Galway.

A rubber tyred tramway is a tram system is tramway with one rail in the middle and has rubber tyres instead of conventional tram wheel has the advantage over conventional trams as it's cheaper to install good idea for Cork or Limerick. Don't see why the goverment didn't build one of these instead of the luas and used the savings to build MN or DU

gctest50

Aerial tramways would be better, if you're going to be putting cables everywhere anyway

ricimaki

Existing rubber tyred trams have very high maintenance cost over regular trams, whilst costing very similar amounts, if not more to implement. The systems (Translohr, Bombardier GLT) are also proprietary, limiting choices when the trams eventually need to be replaced. The only real advantage over a normal tram is that they can travel up steeper slopes.

Trolleybuses aren't a bad idea, but there aren't too many benefits over diesel busses. Whilst the installation cost does result in lower energy and maintenance costs, there is no capacity gain over normal busses. They make sense on a high frequency BRT line, but not in the mixed traffic where all existing busses run.

Del.Monte

What about this? I hear it's very popular in Co.Kerry.

skywanderer

Del.Monte wrote: »

What about this? I hear it's very popular in Co.Kerry.

Dagnabit, those new fangled Combustible engines are all the rage since the Healy-Raes took over.

Banjoxed

skywanderer wrote: »

Dagnabit, those new fangled Combustible engines are all the rage since the Healy-Raes took over.

Why bother with combustible engines on trains when we could all hail the Ford Cortina instead?

Sam Russell

A Trolley bus system exists in Geneva alongside trams. They use twin overhead wires rather than an earth return rail - the twin wire system was used extensively in London but was phased out in the 1955 - 1965 period. They were larger then a conventional bus and accelerated quicker. They were replaced by he Routemaster bus.

Cookie_Monster

Sam Russell wrote: »

A Trolley bus system exists in Geneva alongside trams. They use twin overhead wires rather than an earth return rail - the twin wire system was used extensively in London but was phased out in the 1955 - 1965 period.

Wellington (in NZ) also uses them but has been gradually phasing them out, despite being perceived as greener they have several problems, namely:

1) The poles tend to come off the wires with reasonable frequency and hence cause big delay while drivers get out to re-attach them. Friend of mine has to get a route that uses them every day, he mentioned last time we were down that it happened twice in the same day the odd time!!

2) Older buses can't run off the grid so if a road is blocked there may not be a diversion route the bus can take, also in a mixed fleet of diesel and trolley it ties units to specific routes and limits flexibility greatly.

3) OEL is ugly!

Stephen15

Cookie_Monster wrote: »

Wellington (in NZ) also uses them but has been gradually phasing them out, despite being perceived as greener they have several problems, namely:

1) The poles tend to come off the wires with reasonable frequency and hence cause big delay while drivers get out to re-attach them. Friend of mine has to get a route that uses them every day, he mentioned last time we were down that it happened twice in the same day the odd time!!

2) Older buses can't run off the grid so if a road is blocked there may not be a diversion route the bus can take, also in a mixed fleet of diesel and trolley it ties units to specific routes and limits flexibility greatly.

3) OEL is ugly!

That kind of thing probably happens as it's a outdated system. You can also now get dual diesel/trolley buses which can divert off the wires. As regard to OEL it's only as ugly as conventonal tram wires obivously without tram tracks also overhead wires could double up as street lights.

magicbastarder

Stephen15 wrote: »

You can also now get dual diesel/trolley buses which can divert off the wires.

took a bus from the outskirts of seattle to the city centre in 2003. was diesel, but as soon as it reached the city centre, the driver got out and unhooked the pole which connected it to the overhead wire system and it ran on electricity from there in.
also had a good system where (allowed by a flat fare), you paid getting on while inbound, but getting off while outbound. meant the bus sat for shorter periods of time at the stops in the city itself.

Muahahaha

They have one of those sky trains running between terminals and the main train line outside Dusseldorf airport. Very smooth ride but Im not sure how cost effective theyd be for multiple stations along a long line with each one needing overhead access by stairs, escalators and lifts for wheelchair users.

savagethegoat

Stephen15 wrote: »

Why arent these being muted as possible transport solutions for smaller cities like Galway, Cork or Limerick or even as a potential alternative to the Swords/Airport BRT.

Trolleybuses which are buses powered by overhead wires were popular during the last century Belfast had one for example and many cities in Russia have retained them aswell a few cities in the US, Greece and Italy a few cities in France have seen the enviromental benefits and re introduced them and they could be used similar to a BRT good idea for the Swords BRT and Galway.

A rubber tyred tramway is a tram system is tramway with one rail in the middle and has rubber tyres instead of conventional tram wheel has the advantage over conventional trams as it's cheaper to install good idea for Cork or Limerick. Don't see why the goverment didn't build one of these instead of the luas and used the savings to build MN or DU

I seriously doubt you need to explain what these things are to the members of this forum. It doesn't help your case