Transport plan predictably fails

And so it has come to pass, Wellington’s doomed-tofail trolley bus plan has done just that – failed. The plan was for the old trolleys – once the centrepiece of the capital’s public transport network – to be taken down, modernised, and swiftly put back on the road.

More than two years later, owner NZ Bus has admitted defeat, the vehicles have been snapped up by a private buyer and are being listed as potential tiny homes or baches.

Why is this a problem? Firstly, because the 60-odd electric trolley buses have been replaced by diesel buses – which will continue to operate until early next year – and secondly, because Greater Wellington Regional Council ignored warnings the retrofitting exercise wouldn’t work.

Plan A was to fit the trolleys with

Wrightspeed hybrid motors, fledgling technology being developed in the United States and being trialled by one other company worldwide – a rubbish collection operation in Sonoma County, California.

To date, according to the company’s website, no other firms have adopted the technology.

When that plan failed, NZ Bus – whose only obligation to the council was to replace the trolleys with electric vehicles at some stage – turned to existing battery bus technology.

The signs there weren’t good, either, so the company and council quietly decided to ditch the plans and palm off the troublesome trolleys to someone else.

Former councillor Sue Kedgley was one who expressed concern over the Wrightspeed plan. It’s a shame no-one listened to her.

The council says a new batch of electric buses is on its way and should be rolled out by early next year. Just three years late.