What's a trolley?

Trolleys¹ are electric-powered light rail vehicles that typically travel on rails embedded into a street running in mixed or semi-mixed traffic.

I often hear from people, when they ride a trolley for the first time:

"So wait, this is just a worse bus right?"

WRONG WRONG WRONG

Now, buses do have many advantages. I'm not here to disparage buses. And it's true that whether it's a bus or a trolley, running in mixed traffic is always worse for speed and reliability than running in a dedicated lane like a bus-lane or separated railway.

But if you have a a route with lots of local stops that's pretty busy, but it's just too local for a subway to make sense and maybe not busy enough for a subway, well, trolleys are just more efficient than buses if you're willing to make the upfront investment in installing rails.

Why??

1. Trolleys are electric and they do so *without batteries and this makes them very good for the environment. Trolleys draw their power directly from power lines hanging over the trolley tracks (catenary cables). Unlike battery-powered buses, there's no need to mine lithium and emit tons of greenhouse gases manufacturing batteries, and the trolleys are not weighed down by heavy batteries which brings us to the next reason
2. Trolleys are more energy efficient because they are lighter than battery-powered buses, so it takes less energy to move them, and also because they have steel wheels. Steel wheels require less energy to move the trolley than rubber tires due to inertia and physics.
3. Trolleys require less long-term maintenance because they have steel wheels instead of rubber tires. Rubber tires get worn down and need to be replaced much more than steel wheels. They also need to get refilled with air, and they can get punctured by broken bottles and shit. Steel wheels are sturdy! And trolleys in general just have less moving parts than motor vehicles and are easier to maintain. No need to mess with a combustion engine and all the other things that come with it.
4. Trolleys live longer! A bus has a lifespan of 12-15 years before you have to buy a new one. With proper maintenance, you can keep the same trolley running for 70 years or more! Although you'll probably want to upgrade to newer models more often, you don't have to! Philly's got the same trolleys running since the 1970s!
5. Rails require less maintenance than roads. Asphalt gets potholes and shit super easily. Rails? Hardly. Sure, "having a road" feels free, but constantly fixing it and repaving it gets very expensive. If your trolley has a dedicated right-of-way, you don't need to run it on asphalt and that saves a lot of money. You can even just run it over grass, resulting in green railways that look pretty and suck up C02. Even with grade-crossings with streets, this is more cost efficient.
6. Modern trolleys can be made to run in longer two-car units and are generally more spacious, so they can carry a lot more people per hour than a bus. This also makes them more comfortable. You get a lot more capacity from a trolley. Plus, they come in low-floor models that can be level with a boarding platform, just like a train, which is super good for accessibility.
7. Trolleys are popular. They look super nice and are visible in a way bus stops aren't, so people in general are more likely to take them seriously as an option for getting around.
8. Trolleys are easier to drive. They're on rails!

So while, from the rider end of things, you might not realize how the trolley is better for the city than the bus, the city budget certainly notices. In the long-term, it's just way more efficient to run trolleys, so long as the route's popularity justifies the upfront investment.

1. "streetcar" for Canadians, whose cars actually drive on water; and "tram" for Europeans, who want to confuse people with auditory processing disorders trying to navigate the trams and trains in the transit system. ↩︎