On June 18, 2008, Edmonton city council voted 7-6 to phase out trolley buses in 2009 and 2010. City administration had recommended this action, and has been pushing to get rid of trolleys for years now. They made the claim that the trolleys would cost $100 million to keep for the next 20 years, with the extra cost being due to the premium of buying trolleys over hybrids or diesels, and due to the need to maintain the overhead wires.
The problems with this are:
1. The cost calculations were on a per-km basis, and it was assumed that only half the scheduled trolley service would ever be operated. With the cost of maintaining the wires being a fixed cost, running fewer trolleys drives up your costs and makes them appear to be prohibitive. ETS has only ever run about half the scheduled trolley service for the past few years, despite repeated directives from city council to maximise trolley usage.
2. To further inflate the cost of trolleys, the replacement of virtually every part of the overhead system was included in the cost calculations.
Most of this replacement would probably be unneeded if trolleys
were to be retained.
3. The reports made the laughable assumption that diesel fuel would stay at $0.80/litre for the next 20 years! Right now, less than a month after the vote, it is now about $1.50/litre.
4. The reports assumed that there would be no increase in trolley service, and that 47 trolleys would be all that is needed to run the system. But, the Strategic Ridership Growth Study recommends 10 minute service on all major routes. Applying this to the trolley routes would require a fleet of 70 trolleys, and reconfiguring routes to make full use of the existing system
(ie restoring trolley service to Highlands and Southgate) would push that even higher.
This would have the effect of reducing the per kilometre cost even more, since there would be even more trolleys operating.
5. The reports only looked at one possible trolley supplier (New Flyer) which charges $1million per bus. Trolleys in Europe sell for about a half to a third of that, and no analysis of the cost of importing trolleys was done. Shipping fees, Transport Canada certification, and import taxes would add to the cost of bringing in those buses, it should still be less than the cost of the $1million New Flyer trolley.
Basically, the assumptions for these reports were designed to be slanted against trolleys from the start, and no attempt at an objective look at the trolleys was done. Just like in Toronto and Hamilton in 1992 and 1993, management wanted the trolleys out the door, and so set them up for failure.
Some members of council thought they could use the money "saved" by eliminating trolleys to fund LRT expansion. However, LRT costs around $100million/km to build. So, even if all the savings were accurate, for the whole amount tossed around, we could build 1km of LRT in 20 years.
Without trolleys, however, Edmonton is now 100% dependant on using diesel fuel for the bus fleet. With the cost of diesel rising, the choice to get rid of trolleys will be regretted in the long run. Moreover, local quality of life will be diminished, as diesel buses will now be roaring along the trolley routes, adding noise and pollution to the street level.
In Inglewood along 114 Ave for instance, trolley buses run every 8
minutes during the day,
every 15 minutes in the evening, and every 30 minutes at night.
Service starts at 5 am and continues to 1 am, with over 400 trolleys
passing by on any given day.
The effects of noise and pollution form that many diesel buses will be immense.
Sadly, local quality of life never entered into the equation.
Some people have tried making the claim that because the trolleys are powered by coal plants, that they are no better environmentally than diesels. This ignores two facts, 1) that power plants are located outside city limits, and aren't spewing exhaust right in our streets and 2) that trolleys can be made 100% emission free by the purchase of green power, just as Calgary has done for their LRT.
It's not too late to get this decision reversed. I urge everyone to write to your city councillor, and let them know your support for trolleys. And visit the website of the Edmonton Trolley Coalition (www.trolleycoalition.org) for more information.
The problems with this are:
1. The cost calculations were on a per-km basis, and it was assumed that only half the scheduled trolley service would ever be operated. With the cost of maintaining the wires being a fixed cost, running fewer trolleys drives up your costs and makes them appear to be prohibitive. ETS has only ever run about half the scheduled trolley service for the past few years, despite repeated directives from city council to maximise trolley usage.
2. To further inflate the cost of trolleys, the replacement of virtually every part of the overhead system was included in the cost calculations.
Most of this replacement would probably be unneeded if trolleys
were to be retained.
3. The reports made the laughable assumption that diesel fuel would stay at $0.80/litre for the next 20 years! Right now, less than a month after the vote, it is now about $1.50/litre.
4. The reports assumed that there would be no increase in trolley service, and that 47 trolleys would be all that is needed to run the system. But, the Strategic Ridership Growth Study recommends 10 minute service on all major routes. Applying this to the trolley routes would require a fleet of 70 trolleys, and reconfiguring routes to make full use of the existing system
(ie restoring trolley service to Highlands and Southgate) would push that even higher.
This would have the effect of reducing the per kilometre cost even more, since there would be even more trolleys operating.
5. The reports only looked at one possible trolley supplier (New Flyer) which charges $1million per bus. Trolleys in Europe sell for about a half to a third of that, and no analysis of the cost of importing trolleys was done. Shipping fees, Transport Canada certification, and import taxes would add to the cost of bringing in those buses, it should still be less than the cost of the $1million New Flyer trolley.
Basically, the assumptions for these reports were designed to be slanted against trolleys from the start, and no attempt at an objective look at the trolleys was done. Just like in Toronto and Hamilton in 1992 and 1993, management wanted the trolleys out the door, and so set them up for failure.
Some members of council thought they could use the money "saved" by eliminating trolleys to fund LRT expansion. However, LRT costs around $100million/km to build. So, even if all the savings were accurate, for the whole amount tossed around, we could build 1km of LRT in 20 years.
Without trolleys, however, Edmonton is now 100% dependant on using diesel fuel for the bus fleet. With the cost of diesel rising, the choice to get rid of trolleys will be regretted in the long run. Moreover, local quality of life will be diminished, as diesel buses will now be roaring along the trolley routes, adding noise and pollution to the street level.
In Inglewood along 114 Ave for instance, trolley buses run every 8
minutes during the day,
every 15 minutes in the evening, and every 30 minutes at night.
Service starts at 5 am and continues to 1 am, with over 400 trolleys
passing by on any given day.
The effects of noise and pollution form that many diesel buses will be immense.
Sadly, local quality of life never entered into the equation.
Some people have tried making the claim that because the trolleys are powered by coal plants, that they are no better environmentally than diesels. This ignores two facts, 1) that power plants are located outside city limits, and aren't spewing exhaust right in our streets and 2) that trolleys can be made 100% emission free by the purchase of green power, just as Calgary has done for their LRT.
It's not too late to get this decision reversed. I urge everyone to write to your city councillor, and let them know your support for trolleys. And visit the website of the Edmonton Trolley Coalition (www.trolleycoalition.org) for more information.
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