Trolleybus facts for kids

Electromote in Berlin, 1882

A Polish Solaris trolleybus in Landskrona, Sweden

An Ikarus trolleybus

An New Flyer low floor Trolleybus in Vancouver

Trolleybus networks around the world:      Trolleybus networks in operation, including bus rapid transit networks      Trolleybus networks in operation, without bus rapid transit networks      Trolleybus networks planned (as new or reconstruction)      Countries that had trolleybus networks      Countries that never had trolleybus networks

A trolleybus (also known as trolley bus, trolley coach, trackless trolley, trackless tram or simply trolley) is a bus which runs on electricity. It gets its power for the electric motors that drive the wheels from a pair of power lines above the street.

On the roof of the bus are two "trolley poles" from which electric current flows between the wires and the bus. One wire is for the positive current and the other is for the negative (return) current.

Because trolleybuses do not usually have engines which burn diesel or other fossil fuels, they are much cleaner and quieter than "normal" buses. They also do not use tracks, so they are more flexible than trams. But as these buses often cannot run without power from the wires, their range is still limited compared to ordinary buses.

Trolleybuses cost more money to make than other types of buses, so there are not many companies that build this type of bus. Some of these companies are:

• VanHool
• MAN
• Hess
• Solaris
• Škoda Electric
• Neoplan
• Volvo

Images for kids

• 

  Busscar trolleybus in São Paulo, Brazil

• 

  Trolleybus in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

• 

  The "Elektromote", the world's first trolleybus, in Berlin, Germany, 1882

• 

  A double-deck trolleybus in Reading, England, 1966

• 

  A trolleybus in Qingdao, China

• 

  A San Francisco Muni trolleybus (ETI 14TrSF) climbing Nob Hill

• 

  Indicator for a wire switch

• 

  Insulated poles, contact shoes, and pull–ropes

• 

  On this articulated Beijing trolleybus, the operator uses ropes to guide the trolley poles to contact the overhead wires.

• 

  A dual-mode bus operating as a trolleybus in the Downtown Seattle Transit Tunnel, in 1990

• 

  Trolleybus wire switch (Type Soviet Union)

• 

  One of the NAW/Hess articulated trolleybuses delivered to Geneva in 1992, which were among the first production-series low-floor trolleybuses

• 

  The Vancouver trolleybus system completed the transition to an exclusively low-floor fleet in 2009.

• 

  A trolleybus in Bradford in 1970. The Bradford Trolleybus system was the last one to operate in the United Kingdom; closing in 1972.

See also

In Spanish: Trolebús para niños