Ditching trolleys: Let’s not do this
With the change of Government comes an apparent breakthrough towards action on climate change.
We’re told it’s this decade’s nuclear-free moment. We’ll soon start to see New Zealand transition to a low-carbon economy.
Yet Wellington is on the verge of a backwards step. Today the carbon emissions from Wellington City’s public transport will increase by around 30 per cent overnight. That’s because Wellington is scheduled to begin destroying the trolley bus overhead wires, swapping its much-loved and environmentallyfriendly trolley buses for dirty diesel replacements.
The Greater Wellington Regional Council (GWRC) says it is committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and improving air quality. But when the policy rubber hits the road, the council is doing the exact opposite.
Their answer is to say that ‘‘cleaner diesels’’ are coming in a few months – new diesel buses with a lifespan of decades. If this goes ahead it could be 2040 before we have zero-emissions public transport in Wellington.
This backwards leap comes at the dawn of a new era in New Zealand climate policy, when climate change is finally being seen as a serious priority. There is strong support within our new Government for zero-emissions public transport in Wellington, including a long-term solution such as light rail.
We need time for a fresh look at the options before irreversibly pulling the plug on the trolleys and the infrastructure. Let’s keep the trolley buses running for at least another few months and allow everybody to get around the table and look for a more climate- and people-friendly solution.
Wellington City Council owns the overhead wires. It could create breathing space by keeping them in place while creative solutions are explored in the new political environment. We call on our Mayor Justin Lester to seize this opportunity to show climate leadership.
As for the GWRC, it says it’s a done deal and all tied up in contracts. In fact, it would be easy to incorporate the trolley bus system into the new routes, and tweak the new contracts to achieve this.
Claims about costs don’t stack up: the ratepayer has recently spent millions renewing the 80 kilometres of overhead wire and is now at risk of spending millions more to take it down again. It would actually be cheaper to modify the wires for the new routes than to remove them all.
The major stumbling block has always been the cost of upgrading the substations and underground power supply. With the change of Government this shouldn’t remain a problem. The power supply is a key ingredient for light rail. There’s no doubt that it would be cheaper to upgrade existing infrastructure than to pull it out, only to put it back in again years down the track.
Overcoming these obstacles unlocks the opportunity: Right now there are buses for sale that combine trolley and battery technology. These buses can run on overhead wires where they exist, but aren’t limited by them. Such hybrid technology would be superior even to battery-only buses, and could replace almost all diesel buses in Wellington.
We can also reuse the existing trolley buses by fitting them with new batteries, giving an off-wire range of up to 20km for about $50,000 per bus.
What this means is that there’s the potential to create an entirely zero-emissions fleet for Wellington in a matter of years – if, and only if, we keep the trolley overhead wires. Otherwise, in a few weeks that potential will be gone, and we’ll have committed to a decade of diesel at least.
The context has changed and it’s time for Wellington City Council and the Greater Wellington Regional Council to seize the opportunities a new Government offers. We need to save our trolley bus infrastructure to protect our future.
❚ Victor Komarovsky is a spokesperson for Generation Zero Wellington, which is working to cut carbon pollution through ‘‘smarter transport, liveable cities and independence from fossil fuels’’.
This backwards leap comes at the dawn of a new era in New Zealand climate policy.