Are trolleybuses more sustainable than LRV?
Among the neverending list of blogs I follow, Low Tech Magazine is one of the most interesting and challenging, keeping in mind my predilection for railways.
Some of the theses exposed in its posts goes sometimes towards the necessity of shifting to railway and high speed in particular. Therefore I consider this blog as a second, different point of view on rail questions (and not only) and I appreciate that because it let me think. Its last post considers trolleybuses (but there’s also a reference to trolleytrucks) as a low cost alternative to LRV (Light Rail Vehicles) in the cities due to the lower costs derived from converting a fleet of motor buses into electrical ones with the only infrastructure investment of a catenary. Moreover some benefits come from the lower maintenance costs and energy savings. This system inherits the benefits of a not track guided transport together with the flexibility of an energy source such as electricity that can be stored, regenerated and applied to electric motors. Nevertheless rubber tyres make the system less noisy.
As a matter of fact if we need more capacity the choice should advantage LRV, the article anyhow represents a way to discuss about a valid alternative to urban transit combustion engines solutions.
