[KING COUNTY, WASHINGTON, USA] TROLLEY 車隊更新

在回文時無意中發現了這個連結﹕ http://metro.kingcounty.gov/up/projects/trolleyevaluation.html

在西雅圖的無軌電車已年近30﹐是時候更新車隊及系統了。

We just replace the Flyer 10 years ago with the Gillig's, replacing again???

Just don't touch our trolley system, we Seattlites love our trolley buses, it's a clean, pollution free system.  I think the best is to renew the parts, that's it.  and Trolley buses are especially good in the hilly part of the city like, First Hill, Capital Hill, Pike and Pine....

原帖由 art0925 於 2010-8-16 00:54 發表
Just don't touch our trolley system, we Seattlites love our trolley buses, it's a clean, pollution free system.  I think the best is to renew the parts, that's it.  and Trolley buses are especially go ...

Second to that! Edmonton in Alberta (Canada) just recently lost their trolleybus system after city council voted against replacing the aging fleet of BBC trollies from 1982. It is a very tragic loss, and many people I personally know in Edmonton still grieve about it to this day, more than one year since their system was decommissioned in May 2009.

I can see KCM trying to replace the trolleybus system in Seattle with hybrid buses, as they do have a huge fleet of hybrid articulated buses (and Orion VII BAE soon). Under logical assumption, they will further expand their hybrid fleet as to unify their fleet of buses in the future, just to ease up on maintenance and management of their bus fleet. North American transit agencies have the tendancy to acquire large groups of particular make / model of buses, just so they don't have to keep ordering huge varieties of spare parts, while having to provide extra training for operators / mechanics to operate / maintain too many different types of buses.

Just for the purpose of clarification, the Gillig trollies can't be fully described as "new vehicles". In fact, they are basically rebodied and modernized AM General trolley coaches, with the motors rebuilt and a new body shell mounted on the original chassis...........similar idea to United Goninan refurbishing the 1979 MTR M-stock trains in 1998. With proper permission, I borrowed a photo taken by a friend of mine, Peter McLaughlin, to show the "original" Gillig trolley before they became known to us as "Gillig trollies".

1979 AM General trolleybus:



For those who may be interested, Peter has lots of valuable historical photos showing the past of Seattle's transit on his website:

http://busdrawings.com/Transit/washington/seattle/

And while we're at it, I'll post a photo of a KCM Gillig trolleybus, taken by myself:



Finally, there are the Breda trolleybuses, imported from Italy in 1990 / 1991 as "dual-mode" buses that can be operated either as normal diesel buses, or as trolleybuses in the Seattle bus tunnel. They were converted to "single mode" (operate as electric trolleybuses only) starting from 2002:



And last but not least, a New Flyer hybrid articulated bus inside the Seattle bus tunnel!



Cheers,

Dave

尾二那張相的無軌電車車頭很像Northern Counties Paladin車身款式。

They were made in Italy and assembled @ Atlantic Base.  However, for the Gillig Series, Yes, their "engine" is old, however, the body shell is completely new, cause I've seen them shipped to Atlantic Base without running unit, but with everything else installed.  As I remember the rear axis from Flyer is not made by MAN, but the Gillig Trolley was, also New Flyer also has the Glider option for agency to purchase.

原帖由 dongfeng 於 2010-8-26 21:50 發表
尾二那張相的無軌電車車頭很像Northern Counties Paladin車身款式。

Finally I found an article about the Seattle Trolley Bus that explains what's the deal on the Gillig trolley buses.

http://www.centraldistrictnews.c ... ed-for-replacements

I think King County Metro is trying to replace the inside, i.e. the system that runs the bus, not the body itself.

And by the way, KCM might need to look at what San Francisco Muni has done on its system.