Before there were bio-buses, there were electric trolleybuses. In 1953, when the above photo was taken at the corner of St. Laurent and Van Horne, many of Montreal’s buses were powered by the same overhead catenary as its streetcars, emitting no pollution and very little noise as they travelled through the city.
While trolleybuses can still be found in some North American cities, Montreal switched to diesel buses a long time ago. Now, with the rising cost of fuel and a better grasp of how air pollution damages the city, the STM is in the process of modifying all of its buses so that they can run on more environmentally-friendly biodiesel.
Maybe it’s time to bring back the trolleybus. Not on every route, of course, but on select routes, like the bus rapid transit line that will be built on Pie IX Blvd. sometime in the next few years. Trolleybuses are much cheaper than streetcars and they don’t require nearly as much additional infrastructure. Best of all, they last much longer and require less maintenance than diesel buses—something we ought to consider given the tendency of the STM’s buses to break down.
I’ve spent a lot of time in Vancouver, which has one of the largest networks of trolleybuses in North America. Compared to normal buses, they’re a pleasure to ride: emitting nothing more than a faint hum when they’re in motion, they are dead quiet when stopped. This silence is especially evident on the streets, which are much more pleasant without the diesel roar of passing buses.
Montreal’s economic and political leaders seem to have their minds set on building new tramway lines. Today, the would-be developer of the billion-dollar Griffintown project made the front page of Le Devoir with a threat to walk away from his real estate venture if the city doesn’t commit to building a streetcar line through the middle of it. There’s nothing wrong with tramways, and they have an important place in an expanded public transit network, but let’s not forget about trolleybuses.
Trolleybus on Robson St., Vancouver
16 comments
From the gov’ts perspective they might be worth looking at, but you can see why the developer would want a streetcar. Once you’ve put down the tracks it’s a little harder to abandon the line.
I’m afraid of becoming the devil’s advocate on this site for all talk of positives in Vancouver’s urban planning, but I have to point out that one drawback with the trolleybuses in Vancouver is the constant delays with buses whose connections become unhooked from the lines. This requires the bus driver to stop in the middle of traffic and go outside to physically re-connect the bus to the cables. That said, this only happens with the older, worn -out buses, and it only seems to happen when the bus is turning- if you could have a bus-line that went straight and did not have to make any turns, this problem could probably be avoided. And I do have to agree with Chris that they are much better for the environment, including greatly reduced noise.
The other knock against trolley buses vs. diesel is the infrastructure that has to be setup and the visual pollution in the sky.
You could argue that it’s not much, that the lack of sound and air pollution more than makes up for it, and you’d probably be right. But it’s something to consider.
We have one of the best metro in the world and you have buses all over the city. Why would we want the tramway or the trolley back? Istill don,t get that one.
I agree that trolleybuses would be a good idea for some of the busier lines, but that don’t have the traffic to warrant a tram. However Pie IX, like avenue du Parc, should be developed as major tramline arteries – indeed the tram – which costs more, but less than a métro line, is “structuring” – it is pretty much there for good and conditions the development along it. If the blue line is built along to Pie IX, Jean-Talon and Pie IX could become a major hub. I’d love to see some more “urban”, less car-centred development around there, perhaps some high-rise apartment blocks with ground floor businesses and better landscaping. Drawing upon the very interesting ethno-cultural mix and public transport lines around there to make it a bit of a centre for northeastern Montréal.
Beaubien is one example of a line busy enough for a trolleybus – and why not St-Laurent?
Olivier, that’s a good point. It mostly happens when the older buses are turning, but I’ve had it happen on new buses too, though much less frequently. That’s why I think that trolleybuses would be perfect on some lines (like the Pie IX BRT) but not others.
That said, Montreal’s bus lines are a lot more linear than those in Vancouver. The 24 Sherbrooke, for instance, makes only one turn (at Decarie) along its entire route.
Fagstein, I personally enjoy the visual clutter of trolley wires, but I’m weird like that. If trolleybus use was restricted to a few straight streets, there wouldn’t be much visual pollution whatsoever. It’s when trolley lines intersect that things get ugly.
BruB, I think the reason why the idea of tramways is so appealing is that Montreal’s transit system needs more flexibility and more options. The metro is great and the bus network is pretty strong, all things considered, but we still need some high-capacity solutions between the two, like trams or BRT.
I LOVE trolly-buses.
Cheap(er) clean and efficient.
Thank you for bringing them up.
I particularly love the extra-long variety that are all bendy in the middle. SO HUGE!
There is no way anybody can be anti in any credible way. Seriously.
Why don’t we just blow the world away and go directly to wireless?
Electric trolleybuses and metros are the backbone of many of the worlds largest cities. Metros move tons of people very quickly but at $150 million per km construction cost compared to zero emission trolleybuses that move tons of people effortlesslessly and cost 1/100th to build so $1 million per km. Quito Equador moves 70 million passengers a year with only 114 trolleybuses – that is what Ottawa was achieving a few years ago but with 1000 dieselbuses. Vancouver’s trolleybus fleet is less than 25% of the total fleet yet they move nearly half the bus ridership. Pix IX stands to become North America’s Quito. Can’t argue with the math.
Trolleybuses could also do night service on tramlines which aren’t busy enough to justify an all-night tram, or at least not a frequent (15mins say) one.
(The 24 does make other turns, especially when it reaches the Sherbrooke metro station, in both directions.)
I read somewhere (was it on Spacing Montreal?) that the first tram line would be running from the Infotourist, at Dorchester Square, south along Peel to reach Old Montreal (on wich street? don’t remember) and then North to Berri-Uqam. There was going to be a bus line first to make people accustomed. Anybody knows about that?
And what does that mean: “Pix IX stands to become North America’s Quito.”? I’ve never been to Quito so I’m not sure what you mean by that.
You’re right, I forgot about that brief run on Cherrier.
I’m not sure which newspaper reported the tram’s likely route (I think it was either La Presse or the Gazette) but it would start at Dorchester Square, running down Peel to the Lachine Canal, over through the Old Port on the existing railway, and then up Berri to Berri-UQAM metro.
Tram lines and trolley buses don’t get along. The former use one wire for power, the latter two, so you can’t just substitute the buses at night.
The turning/disconnecting thing isn’t that big of a deal. The new buses have battery backups so they can make it through the intersection & find somewhere safe to reconnect. And it only happens on the very sharp corners downtown where there also happens to be a hill.
An interesting idea from the standpoint of emissions. However, they provide (smoothness aside) the same poor level of service as a bus and require quite a lot of investment in rather ugly overhead wires (do we not have enough already). However on heavily used reserved lanes (Pie 9)where the intensity of diesel pollution could be horrible they could justify themselves.
Perhaps hybrid buses are a reasonable compromise for the moment but I shudder to think about their reliability if our friendly neighbourhood bus manufacturer cannot even make regular buses properly
Having been on the trolley buses in Vancouver, I can echo that they are a beautiful thing. The wires above are hardly noticed, and are no reason to resist such an efficient and pleasing method of transit.
Look at the old photos of Montreal with overhead tramway lines, compare with today. So much cleaner, open, and just plain prettier. One of the ugliest things about cities like Toronto or Vancouver is the wires festooning the streets.
Sure, diesel is loud & polluting, but there are other options than making your city look like a a poster child for overhead metal cobwebs.
Also, if there’s one thing we learned from the ice storm, or at least should have, it’s that having your infrastructure based on above-ground wiring is not the wisest of ideas.