Reconsider silent, sustainable trolley bus for transit

As a young history instructor at the new University of Waterloo years ago, a major attraction of Kitchener-Waterloo for me was the silent trolley buses, gliding along treelined King Street, their only noise a gentle squishing sound in the rain. A pleasant part of a pleasant city.

Unlike streetcars, trolley buses could swing over to the curb to pick up and let off passengers, could manoeuvre around obstacles in their path, they climbed hills better, were cheaper to build and operate. They required no tracks, and no street surfaces had to be torn up to string the overhead wires. Unlike buses, they emitted no polluting exhaust.

After I left the area I was unhappy to learn that those vehicles had been scrapped — to be replaced by snorting, polluting diesel buses. This was “progress,” 1970s style.

Kitchener-Waterloo wasn’t alone.

Cornwall, Ottawa, Winnipeg and Fort William had done the same. Now, Canada operates only one trolley bus system. That’s Vancouver’s, which runs 13 routes and 262 vehicles. Shame on the rest of Canada.

Kitchener-Waterloo is growing and definitely needs more public transit. Light rail is expensive to build. Perhaps it’s time to look again at the silent, non-polluting electric trolley bus?

Stanley Sandler Spring Lake, N.C.