Trolley Song

Yes, this is a trolley:

Or at least a concept for one, proposed for Leeds, England.  This pic is one of 18 that accompany an online story in the Seattle PI.  Vancouver’s trolleys, of course, are in one of the 18.

Seattle – one of the six remaining North American cities with electric trolleys – is currently debating whether to keep theirs.  It’s a question that TransLink answered affirmatively at the beginning of this decade –  at a cost of  a quarter-billion dollars (and one I’m proudest of during my time on the board).  But there was, as in Seattle, a case made at the time for ripping out the system and replacing the electric buses with diesel hybrids. 

An audit report last year suggested Metro could save $8.7 million per year by switching to hybrids, which are cheaper to purchase and operate. …  But Metro officials say the audit didn’t consider the potential for fuel costs to rise. When diesel prices skyrocketed a few years ago to $4.27 per gallon, trolley buses were cheaper to operate, Desmond said.

Even as oil is spilling in the Gulf and climate change is happening faster than the models predicted, how odd that there’s a debate as to whether an emission-free form of mass transit is worth sustaining.