Dictionary Definition
trolleybus n : a passenger bus with an electric
motor that draws power from overhead wires [syn: trolley
coach, trackless
trolley]
User Contributed Dictionary
English
- alternative spelling of trolley bus
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Noun
trolleybusReferences
Extensive Definition
A trolleybus (also known as trolley bus, trolley coach, trackless
trolley, trackless tram or simply trolley) is an electric bus
powered by two overhead wires, from which it draws electricity using two
trolley
poles. Two poles are required in order to accommodate the
return current, which cannot pass to the ground as in the case of
an electric tram (also
called a streetcar) since trolleybuses use rubber tires (which act as electrical
insulators), rather than electrically conductive steel wheels on
rail. There are trolleybuses in many cities around the world.
Background
The history of the trolleybus dates back to
29 April
1882, when Dr.
Ernst
Werner von Siemens ran his "Elektromote" in
a Berlin
suburb. This experimental demonstration continued until 13 June 1882, after which
there was little progress in Europe, although separate experiments
were conducted in the USA. The next development was when Lombard
Gérin operated an experimental line at the Paris
Exhibition of 1900 after four years of trials. Max
Schiemann made the biggest step when on 10 July 1901 the world's first
passenger-carrying trolleybus operated at Bielathal (near Dresden) in
Germany.
Schiemann built and operated the Bielathal system, and is credited
with developing the under-running trolley current collection
system, with two horizontally parallel overhead wires and rigid
trolleypoles spring-loaded to hold them up to the wires. Although
the Bielathal system only operated until 1904, Schiemann had
developed what is now the standard trolleybus current collection
system. In the early days, however, there were a few different
methods of current collection. The Cedes-Stoll system, designed by
Carl Stoll, operated near Dresden between
1902 and 1904, and in Vienna. The
Lloyd-Köhler or Bremen system was tried out in Bremen, and
the Filovia
was demonstrated near Milan.
Leeds and Bradford became
the first cities to operate passenger-carrying trolleybuses in the
UK
on 20
June 1911.
Bradford was also the last to operate trolleybuses in the UK, the
system closing on 26 March
1972. The last
rear entrance trolleybus in Britain was also in Bradford and is now
owned by the
Bradford Trolleybus Association. Birmingham was
the first to replace a tram route with trolleybuses, while Wolverhampton
under the direction of Charles Owen Silvers was responsible for
turning the "trackless tram" into the trolleybus. There were 50
trolleybus operations in the UK in total, London's being the
largest. By the time trolleybuses arrived in Britain in 1911, the
Schiemann system was well established and was the most common,
although the short-lived Stockport
operation used the Lloyd-Kölher system and Keighley used the
Cedes-Stoll system.
In the United
States, some cities, led by the
Brooklyn-Manhattan Transit Corporation (BMT—New
York), subscribed to the all-four concept
of using buses, trolleybuses, trams (in U.S. called streetcars or trolleys) and rapid
transit subway and/or elevated lines (metros), as appropriate, for
routes ranging from lightly-used to the heaviest trunk line. Buses
and trolleybuses in particular were seen as entry systems that
could later be upgraded to rail as appropriate. Although the BMT in
Brooklyn
built only one trolleybus line, other cities, notably San
Francisco, California and Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania, built larger systems and still maintain
"all-four". If one includes cable cars as another mode, San
Francisco could be called "all-five," as its
cable cars provide general transportation while also serving as
a popular tourist attraction and the only moving National
Historic Landmark in the United States.
A number of trolleybus lines in the United States
came into existence when a tracked trolley/tram route did not have
sufficient ridership to warrant track maintenance or
reconstruction. In a similar manner, a proposed tram scheme in
Leeds, United
Kingdom, has now been changed to a trolleybus scheme to cut
costs.
Design
Advantages
Trolleybuses are advantageous on hilly routes, as
electric power is
more effective than diesel for
climbing steep hills. Unlike combustion engines, electric motors
draw power from a central plant and can be overloaded for several
minutes without damage. San
Francisco and Seattle,
USA, both hilly, use trolleybuses partly for this reason, another
being improved air quality. Given this acceleration and braking
performance, trolleybuses easily outperform diesel buses on flat
stretches as well.
Trolleybuses' rubber tires have better adhesion than streetcars' steel
wheels on steel rails, giving them better hill climbing and
braking. Unlike rail vehicles (where side tracks are not
available), an out-of-service vehicle can be removed to the side of
the road and its trolleys disconnected, allowing vehicles to pass.
Additionally, because they are not tracked, trolleybuses can pull
over to the curb as a diesel bus does, eliminating boarding islands
in the street.
Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania has operated trolleybuses (known regionally as
trackless trolleys) in the past, and the city's
SEPTA system has ordered a new fleet to restore trackless
trolley service in 2008 to three of its five previous routes.
Like other electric
vehicles, trolleybuses are more environmentally friendly than
fossil-fuel
or hydrocarbon-based
vehicles (gasoline,
diesel, alcohol, etc.). However the
power is not free, having to be produced at centralised power plants,
with attendant transmission losses.
On the other hand, centrally-produced power is
more efficient, not bound to a specific fuel source and more
amenable to pollution control as a single-source supply than are
individual vehicles with their own engines that exhaust noxious
gases and particulates at street
level. Moreover, some cities, like Calgary, Alberta, run their
commuter light rail networks using wind energy, which is
effectively emission-free once the turbines are built and
installed. A further advantage of trolleybuses is that they can
generate electric power from kinetic
energy whilst braking, a process known as regenerative
braking.
Also, unlike buses or trams, trolleybuses are
almost silent, lacking the noise of a diesel engine or wheels on
rails. Such noise as there is tends to emanate from auxiliary
systems such as power steering pumps and air conditioning. Early
trolleybuses without these systems were even quieter, and in the UK
at least were often referred to as the "Silent Service". The
quietness did have its disadvantages though, with quite a number of
pedestrians falling victim to what was also known as "the Silent
Death".
Trolleybuses are specially favoured in locations
where electricity is
abundant and cheap. Examples of this are the extensive trolleybus
systems in
Vancouver, British
Columbia, Canada and Seattle,
Washington, USA,
both of which draw hydroelectric power from
the Columbia
River and other Pacific river systems. Seattle benefits doubly,
with steep gradients near the
Downtown waterfront and on
Queen Anne,
First, and
Capitol Hills.
Trolleybuses are used extensively in large
European cities such as Athens, Belgrade, Bratislava,
Bucharest,
Budapest,
Coimbra,
Lyon, Milan, Moscow, Saint
Petersburg, Sofia, Sarajevo, Kiev, Napoli and Minsk as well as
smaller ones such as Arnhem, Ghent, Plovdiv, Lausanne, Luzern, Zürich,
Salzburg,
Limoges,
Nancy,
Geneva,
Presov,
Cluj-Napoca,
Iaşi,
Bergen,
Szeged,
Gomel,
Vitebsk,
Vladivostok,
Mogilev,
Brest
(Belarus), Grodno, Bobruysk, Riga, Cagliari, Tallinn, Solingen, Vilnius, Simferopol,
Yalta,
Lublin,
Košice
and Gdynia.
Cities, especially those built on hills, have
chosen trolleybuses over diesel buses because the electric motor
can produce much more torque than a diesel engine. Moreover, the
electric motor can be temporarily "overpowered", that is, more than
the normal power can be obtained for a short period of time, e.g.
when climbing a steep hill. Also, realising the advantages of these
zero-emission
vehicles, some other European cities have started to expand
their systems again. Other cities such as Lecce will introduce
new trolleybus systems.
In Cambridge,
Massachusetts, the trolleybus system has survived because of
the situation at Harvard
Station, which holds an underground tunnel that was once used
for streetcars. Despite a willingness to use buses, the tunnel at
the time required left-side doors, and had fume concerns. Now,
buses do run in the tunnel. However, the trolleybuses remain due to
popular support.
Some have suggested that the trolleybus will
become obsolete in a future hydrogen
economy. However, direct electric transmission, as used in
trolleybuses, is far more efficient (by a factor of two or more)
than conversion of energy into hydrogen, transportation and storage
of the hydrogen and its conversion back into electricity by fuel
cells.
China is experimenting with a new form of
electric bus that runs without powerlines. This bus runs on power
stored in large onboard supercapacitors, which
are quickly recharged at bus stops. Prototypes were being tested in
Shanghai
in early 2005.
Disadvantages
Re-routings, temporary or permanent, are not usually readily available outside of "downtown" areas where the buses may be re-routed via adjacent business area streets where other trolleybus routes operate. Dewirements sometimes occur, leaving the bus stranded without power, although these events are relatively rare on systems with well-maintained overhead wire, hangers, fittings and "contact shoes." With the introduction of hybrid designs the trolleybus is no longer tied to its overhead trolley wires. Increasingly systems, such as Muni in San Francisco, TransLink in Vancouver, as well as Beijing's trolleybus operator, have circumvented this problem by installing battery packs on their trolleybuses to allow them to drive short to considerably long distances away from the wires. Also Supercapacitors may be used to drive small distances without connections to the grid. Boston is using dual-mode buses on its new Silver Line that run on overhead electricity on a fixed right of way and then transition to city streets using diesel power. In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where five trolleybus lines (trackless trolley locally preferred) have been suspended for partial reconstruction, new trolleybuses on order will have the capacity to operate short distances off the overhead wires through the use of a small diesel engine. In Athens, Greece, which has an extensive trolleybus system, in 2003-04 all trolleybuses were replaced with new vehicles that are equipped with a diesel engine that enables them to run off-line for a considerable distance.Limitations in the creation of power lines also
limits the use of trolleybuses and further restrictions may also
apply where taller vehicles may need to share the route, preventing
the installation of overhead lines. Nevertheless, installation is
faster and less expensive than a tramway system.
Trolleybuses can pass one another in regular
service, if two separate sets of wires with a switch are provided,
or if the buses are battery-equipped.
Trolleybuses generally are implemented only when
they confer one of the advantages listed above, due to the high
cost of their infrastructure compared to the diesel bus. With
increasing diesel fuel costs and particlulate matter and NOx
emissions problems in many cities, trolleybuses yet may be seen as
the best suited relief for many cities, either as the primary
transit mode or as a supplement to rapid transit and commuter rail
networks.
While at one time many cities operated this
mode of
transport, it is relatively uncommon today in North America,
though it is still a common form of transport in many European,
Russian, Brazilian and Chinese cities, generally occupying the
niche between street railways (trams) and diesel-powered
buses.
Some trolleybus systems have been criticized for
aesthetic reasons, with city residents complaining that the jumble
of overhead wires was unsightly.
Pardubice
–ropes
Trolleybus wire switch
Trolleybus wire switches (referred to as "frogs" in some countries) are a standard piece of equipment in places where a trolleybus line forks or branches into two. A switch may be either in a "straight through" or "turnout" position; it normally remains in the "straight through" position unless it has been triggered, and reverts to it after a few seconds. Triggering is often caused by a pair of contacts or electromagnets, with one attached to each trolleybus wire, located close to but before the switch itself.Multiple branches may be handled by installing
more than one switch. For example, to provide straight-through,
left-turn or right-turn branches at an intersection, one switch is
installed some distance from the intersection to choose a line over
the left-turn lane, and another switch is mounted close to the
intersection to choose between straight through and a right turn.
[This would be the arrangement in countries such as the US, where
traffic
directionality is right-handed; in left-handed traffic
countries such as Britain and New Zealand, the switch some distance
from the intersection would be used to access the right-turn lanes,
and the switch close to the intersection would be for the left-turn
fork instead.]
Three common types of switch exist:
Power-on/Power-off (the picture of a switch above is of this type),
Selectric, and Fahslabend.
A Power-on/Power-off switch is triggered if the
trolleybus is drawing power from the overhead wires, usually by
accelerating, when the poles pass over the contacts. (The contacts
are lined up on the wires in this case.)
A Selectric switch has a similar design, but the
contacts on the wires are not lined up but skewed, often at a
45-degree angle. This skew means that a bus going straight through
will not trigger the switch, but a bus attempting a sharp turn
(usually a right turn in countries with right-handed traffic) will
cause its poles to meet the wires in a matching skew with one pole
ahead of the other, which will trigger the switch.
For a Fahslabend
switch, the bus's turn indicator (or a separate driver-controlled
switch) causes a coded radio signal to be sent from a transmitter
mounted on the bus (often attached to one of the trolley poles).
The corresponding receiver is attached to the switch directly, and
will cause it to trigger if the correct code is received. This has
the advantage that the driver does not need to be accelerating the
bus (as with a Power-on/Power-off switch) or trying to make a sharp
turn (as with a Selectric switch). As a result, some cities
operating trolleybuses have replaced other trolleybus switch types
with this type of switch.
Trolleybus makers
Current
- Belkommunmash
- Bogdan Corporation
- Carrosserie Hess
- Designline - for the new trolleybuses to replace Wellington, New Zealand's fleet
- Electrotrans-Service
- Eletra Industrial Ltda - Brazil
- Irisbus
- Jelcz
- Lviv Bus Factory
- Mercedes-Benz
- Minsk Automobile Plant
- Neoplan
- New Flyer Industries
- Rocar
- Škoda Works
- Solaris Bus & Coach, equipped by Ganz (not existing anymore), and by existing DP Ostrava
- Sunwin
- TransAlfa
- Trolza, major producer in Russia
- Van Hool
- Volvo
- Volgograd transport & mashinery plant
- YuMZ - Yuzhnii Mashinostroitelnii Zavod, Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine
Defunct or no longer making trolleybuses
- AM General
- Associated Equipment Company
- British United Traction
- Chavdar, Bulgaria
- Crossley Motors
- Daimler Motor Company
- Dennis Specialist Vehicles
- Guy Motors
- Henschel
- Hispano-Suiza
- Ikarus, Hungary
- Leyland Motors
- Pegaso
- Pullman Standard
- Marmon-Herrington
- Richard Garrett & Sons
- J.G. Brill
- St. Louis Car Company
- ETI Skoda
- Antonov Aircraft Factory, Kiev, Ukraine
- Alfa Romeo/Ansaldo Trasporti
- Lancia
- Saurer
- FBW
- NAW
- Sunbeam
- Vetra
Trolleybuses in Russia
The first trolley vehicle in Russia was built in Saint Petersburg in 1902 at Frese machinebuilding factory. It utilised a carriage-type current receiver like the early von Siemens prototypes. There was no attempt to organize passenger or cargo services at this time.The first operational trolleybus service was
introduced in 1933 in Moscow. In Soviet
cities with underground metropolitan railways, trolleybus systems
were intended to replace tramcars. In reality such plans were
partially performed in the 1950s rather than in the 1930s. The
first Soviet-made passenger trolleybus LK-1 was named after
Politburo member Lazar
Kaganovich. It was a dangerous and unreliable vehicle, quickly
replaced by more advanced YaTB vehicles. These cars, both passenger
and cargo, were the mainstay of the Soviet trolley fleet before the
Great
Patriotic War (World War II). At this time new trolleybus
systems were opened in Leningrad,
Kiev (Ukraine)
and a few other major Soviet cities.
In Brazil, trolleybuses
are currently in use only in Santos
and in two systems in São
Paulo: SPTrans, at the
central and eastern region, and
EMTU, at the suburbs and the cities of
Santo André,
São Bernardo do Campo, Mauá and Diadema.
In São Paulo, two trolleybuses are preserved and exhibited at the
SPTrans (São Paulo Transportation Authority) Museum Gaetano
Ferrola. Another five trolleybuses built by CMTC and Villares
between 1958
and 1965 are
awaiting restoration in the SPTrans garage at Santa Rita. An
original trolleybus built in the United
States by ACF Brill in 1948 was restored in
1999 and
currently can be seen riding in special celebrations, as occurred
in the city's 454-year anniversary celebration on 25 January
2008.
Bulgaria
Trolleybus networks operate in the towns of Sofia, Plovdiv, Varna, Pernik, Veliko Tarnovo and many more. Daily Millions of people use this ecological transportation.Canada
Trolleybuses are currently used in Edmonton and Vancouver. Edmonton's city government proposed retiring its aging fleet but public opinion was against it. Vancouver's aging trolley fleet was recently replaced with newer models, one of which has been loaned to the Edmonton Transit System. Trolleybuses in Hamilton where they were referred to as "trolley coach", were used from 1947 until 1993, when they were replaced by buses.Chile
Valparaíso, one of the largest cities of Chile and with a historic quarter declared a world heritage site by UNESCO, has the only trolley-bus service still working in that country, managed by a private company, Trolebuses de Chile S.A. (formerly Empresa de Transportes Colectivos Eléctricos). The available routes have the 8- prefix on Valparaíso's new metropolitan mass transit system (By now, just route 801 and 802). The fleet is a mix of old German, American, Swiss, and Chinese machines, making an attractive appeal for tourism. The most famous machines are the oldest Pullman Standard machines still in service in the world. (They were declared national monuments and still can be found working in the streets). The company has faced fierce competition from other non-electric bus lines, and almost faced bankruptcy several times in the past; however, many Valparaíso inhabitants feel an emotional link to the service, and tend to vigorously defend the maintenance of this privately funded company.Czech Republic
The Czech Republic has 13 currently operating trolleybus systems (Pilsen, Zlín and Otrokovice, Brno, Ostrava, Pardubice, Hradec Králové, Ústí nad Labem, Teplice, České Budějovice, Opava, Jihlava, Chomutov and Jirkov and Mariánské Lázně). The last one mentioned was a smallest trolleybus network in the world, until the opening of Landskrona trolleybus network in Sweden. Cities that operated trolleybuses in past are Děčín, Prague and Most. There also was a trolleybus testing track, running between the towns of Ostrov and Jáchymov, taking advantage of steep gradients between these towns. It was never used for regular passenger transport, but only for testing trolleybuses made at Škoda factory in Ostrov. The line was dismantled in 2004, following the cessation of production in this factory.Estonia
Trolleybuses are currently in use in Tallinn. There are 8 lines. Old Skoda 14TR and 15TR are changed against Solaris Ganz T12 and T18.Preserved examples are kept at the Musée des
Transports (AMTUIR) in Colombes.
Germany
Trolleybus networks operate in the towns of
Eberswalde (near
Berlin), Esslingen (near
Stüttgart) and Solingen (near
Düsseldorf). There had been over 60 trolleybus companies in the
late 1950s,
many having replaced under-used tram services. Like in the United
Kingdom, the proliferation of Diesel buses led to a decline in
the use of the mode.
Greece
Trolleybuses are in use in Athens. The entire fleet was replaced with new Neoplan and Van Hool trolleybuses from 2001 onward. The network is operated by ILPAP.Hungary
In Hungary trolleybuses are used in Budapest, in Szeged and in Debrecen. In Budapest the entire fleet is operated by Budapesti Közlekedési Vállalat Zrt..Italy
Trolleybuses have been reintroduced in Rome, along a line running northeast from Termini station. On the inner-city part of the route power is from batteires rather than overhead wires. They are in use in Milan too.Lithuania
Trolleybuses now are being used in Vilnius since 1955 (?) and Kaunas since 1965. There are 19 lines in Vilnius and 17 lines in Kaunas now.The Netherlands
Trolleybuses are in use in Arnhem.New Zealand
In Foxton, preserved trolleybuses operate for the public on their own system; and in Wellington, Volvo B58 trolleybuses continue to operate as part of the city's public transport network.North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of)
Pyongyang boasts another trolleybus system in Asia; data is not available due to the closed nature of North Korea. Limited information reveal the buses are made up of imported and locally made vehicles. Imported buses are from Europe (and Eastern Europe) and copied versions from China. There are a few local manufacturers of trolleybuses.Norway
In Bergen, Norway, trolleybuses have been in use since 1950. see Bergen trolleybusPoland
see Transportation in PolandPortugal
Coimbra is the only city in Portugal that have this kind of transportation. They are opereted by SMTUC a municipal service. Exist so far about 20 units from Salvador Caetano/EFACEC.Romania
Trolleybuses run in Bucharest, Cluj, Timișoara, Sibiu, Ploiești, Constanța, Mediaș and Brașov. One "DAC 117 E" (1987) is preserved by the TRANSIRA Association.Russian Federation
Russian transport museums have a variety of historic trolleybuses made by local manufacturers. In Moscow vintage vehicles are only available to the public in transport-dedicated exhibitions and parades of old vehicles on various celebration days. In Saint Petersburg and Nizhny Novgorod museum cars also may be hired for city excursions and parties.Serbia
Four trolleybus lines exist in Belgrade. Three of them are basically a variation of the original line established shortly after World War II with Russian-made vehicles, with the same terminus in the heart of old downtown next to the Kalemegdan fortress and the extension of outlying terminuses in three directions like a fork. The fourth is a completely independent line built perpendicular to these three. It was constructed in the early 1980s.Slovakia
The first trolleybus system on the territory of today's Slovakia was built in 1909 in Bratislava, but served only until 1915. The route led to a hilly recreational area Zelezna studnicka and were fed by a special 4-wheel bogie, running on a pair of wires and connected to the vehicle by a cord. Trolleybuses in Bratislava were reintroduced in 1943, now with a modern, two-pole feeding. In 1962, trolleybus system was introduced in Presov. At the end of 1980s and the beginning of 1990s, three more towns introduced trolleybuses - Banská Bystrica, Žilina and Košice. All vehicles operating in Slovakia were made by Škoda.Sweden
In Landskrona, a single trolleybus route connects the railway station and the wharf area. The system was installed in 2003 and consists of three trolleybuses. Landskrona is the smallest trolleybus network in the world.Switzerland
Trolleybuses are in use in Swiss cities: Lausanne (10 lines), Lucerne (7 lines), Geneva (6 lines), Zurich (6 lines), Berne (5 lines), Neuchâtel (4 lines), Winterthur (4 lines), Fribourg (3 lines), La Chaux-de-Fonds (3 lines), St. Gallen (3 lines), Biel (2 lines), Schaffhausen (1 line), Vevey-Montreux (1 line), Basel (1 line to be cancelled).In Lausanne, the Association Retrobus preserves
old trolleybuses (from 1932) and enables them to circulate in town,
especially on summer weekends.
United Kingdom
The world's largest collection of preserved trolleybuses is at The Trolleybus Museum at Sandtoft in England. Examples are also preserved at the East Anglia Transport Museum and the Black Country Living Museum in England. The Bradford Trolleybus Association is currently restoring a Bradford Trolleybus 758, the last rear entrance trolleybus in Britain, which is kept at Sandtoft.United States of America
- Boston, Massachusetts, as part of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority's Silver Line.
- Cambridge, Massachusetts, as part of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority
- Philadelphia, Pennsylvania as Part of SEPTA
- San Francisco, California, with extensive routes throughout the San Francisco Muni system
- Seattle, Washington
- Dayton, Ohio
- The Illinois Railway Museum maintains a historical collection of 16 trolleybuses from Chicago, Dayton, Cleveland, Des Moines, Vancouver, Toronto and Milwaukee. Several of the preserved coaches provide regularly scheduled operations for visitors over the museum's 4/10 mile demonstration line.
- There are a number of historic trolleybuses on display at the Seashore Trolley Museum in Kennebunkport, Maine.
Gallery
Salvador
Caetano/EFACEC´s trolleys in
Guarda Inglesa depot - Coimbra, Portugal. Debrecen, Hungary. CJWG110K
trolleybus No.156 on the raining streets of Hangzhou, China. São Paulo,
Brazil
downtown.
See also
portal energyBooks
- Sebree, Mac, and Paul Ward. 1973. "Transit’s Stepchild, the Trolley Coach" (Interurbans Special 58 - ASIN B0006C9ZOE). Los Angeles: Interurbans.
- Sebree, Mac, and Paul Ward. 1974. "The Trolley Coach in North America" (Interurbans Special 59 - ASIN B0006CEBZC) Los Angeles: Interurbans.
- Mick Leak. 2006. "The Story Of Britain's Last Rear Entrance Trolleybus In Public Service - Bradford 758. Published By The Bradford Trolleybus Association. Bradford. United Kingdom.
Periodicals
- "Trolleybus Magazine" (ISSN 0266-7452). National Trolleybus Association (UK). Bimonthly.
- "Trackless", the quarterly magazine published by the Bradford Trolleybus Association for its members.
- "Trolleybus", the monthly magazine of the British Trolleybus Society (UK).
Notes
Sources
External links
- Bradford Trolleybus Association
- Trolleymotion - An International action group to promote modern trolleybus systems (+ Database of Systems in the world).
- History of Valparaíso's Trolley-bus service
- Bibliography of the Electric Trolleybus (Richard DeArmond)
- The Electric Trolleybus Web Site
- British trolleybuses
- Trolleybuses in Europe
- Transit World - Features photos of Trolleybuses in Vancouver & Edmonton (Canada), Wellington (New Zealand), Geneva (Switzerland), Rome (Italy) and Seattle (USA)
- MOTATMOTAT Trolley Bus collection. Auckland (New Zealand).
- Trolleybus cities of Russia
- Tom's North American Trolleybus Pictures
- Via Trolebus: Brazilian Trolleybus Informations and News
- The Trolleybus of Santos (Brazil)
- Trolleybus & trams from Belgium & other countries
- http://groups.yahoo.com/group/trolleycoach
- TRANSIRA Association (Romania)
- Estonian Trolley History
- Estonian Trolley and Tram Depot-Trolley parameters
trolleybus in Belarusian: Тралейбус
trolleybus in Bulgarian: Тролейбус
trolleybus in Catalan: Troleibús
trolleybus in Czech: Trolejbus
trolleybus in Danish: Trolleybus
trolleybus in German: Oberleitungsbus
trolleybus in Estonian: Trollibuss
trolleybus in Modern Greek (1453-): Τρόλεϊ
trolleybus in Spanish: Trolebús
trolleybus in Esperanto: Trolebuso
trolleybus in French: Trolleybus
trolleybus in Korean: 무궤도전차
trolleybus in Croatian: Trolejbus
trolleybus in Italian: Filobus
trolleybus in Lithuanian: Troleibusas
trolleybus in Hungarian: Trolibusz
trolleybus in Mongolian: Троллейбус
trolleybus in Dutch: Trolleybus
trolleybus in Japanese: トロリーバス
trolleybus in Norwegian: Trolleybuss
trolleybus in Norwegian Nynorsk:
Trolleybuss
trolleybus in Uzbek: Trolleybus
trolleybus in Polish: Trolejbus
trolleybus in Portuguese: Trólebus
trolleybus in Romanian: Troleibuz
trolleybus in Russian: Троллейбус
trolleybus in Slovak: Trolejbus
trolleybus in Slovenian: Trolejbus
trolleybus in Serbian: Тролејбус
trolleybus in Finnish: Johdinauto
trolleybus in Swedish: Trådbuss
trolleybus in Tatar: Trolleybus
trolleybus in Turkish: Troleybüs
trolleybus in Ukrainian: Тролейбус
trolleybus in Chinese: 無軌電車