Sad day for Wellington with the end of the much loved Trolley buses :(

After 68 years Wellington's much loved Trolley buses tool their final ride yesterday and the power to the network was shut down today in readiness for dismantling the 50 km network of cables. A job that will take a year and cost approximately $34 Million. We were the only city in Oceania to have a Trolley bus network.

This is a shameful and short sighted decision by the Greater Wellington Regional Council in a city that prides itself in being an environmental leader in clean, Green New Zealand. As of today we now have at least 40 more diesel buses on the road and a hope that we might get some hybrid buses next year (are they designed yet?) when we had 60 perfectly good 100% electric ones already running, many only 8 years old. Other countries are powering forward with positive climate change action and with this step we're going backwards. Our household has made a big difference by switching to a 100% electric car (apparently driving it for 6 months saves the planet more than my family recycling for the rest of their lives) but it feels like Greater Wellington have just cancelled out that effort. Even more so when I hear that we in NZ have the 2nd highest percentage of renewable electricity of any major country at 90% (behind Norway).

RIP our clean, quiet, iconic buses...please upgrade the trolleys to battery power ASAP.

Go Wellington Trolley Bus