The Edmonton trolley bus system formed part of the

public transport Public transport (also known as public transportation, public transit, mass transit, or simply transit) is a system of transport for passengers by group travel systems available for use by the general public unlike private transport, typical ...

network in

Edmonton Edmonton ( ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Alberta. Edmonton is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Alberta's central region. The city ancho ...

Alberta Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Ter ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

between 1939 and 2009. Operated by

Edmonton Transit System The Edmonton Transit Service (ETS) (previously known as Edmonton Transit System) is the public transit service owned and operated by the City of Edmonton in Alberta, Canada. It operates Edmonton's bus and light rail systems. In , the system had ...

(ETS), the system had, at its peak, a fleet of 137Hatcher, Colin K. and Tom Schwarzkopf (1983). ''Edmonton's Electric Transit: The Story of Edmonton's Streetcars and Trolley Buses'', pp. 179 and 195. Toronto: Railfare Enterprises Ltd. .Bramley, Rod (July–August 2009). "Edmonton Council Votes to Close System". ''Trolleybus Magazine'' No. 286, pp. 74–82. National Trolleybus Association (UK). . trolley buses, and a total route length of .

History

Trolley bus service in Edmonton started on September 24, 1939, operating on route 5 from 101 St/Jasper Ave to 95 St/111 Ave. By the end of October of that year, service had started on another route running to 99 St/Whyte Ave via the Low Level Bridge. In Edmonton, trolley buses were often referred to simply as "trolleys". The trolley bus system used a mixture of Ohio Brass and K&M Elastic (Swiss) suspension for holding up the

overhead wire An overhead line or overhead wire is an electrical cable that is used to transmit electrical energy to electric locomotives, trolleybuses or trams. It is known variously as: * Overhead catenary * Overhead contact system (OCS) * Overhead equipmen ...

s. The 49 vehicles remaining in use in 2008 were from an order of 100 manufactured in 1981–82 by Brown Boveri & Company (BBC), using bodies and chassis supplied to BBC by GM. These 100 vehicles for Edmonton were the only trolley buses ever built with the GM "New Look" body, whereas more than 44,000 motor buses were built to that design. In 2007, a

low-floor Accessibility is the design of products, devices, services, vehicles, or environments so as to be usable by people with disabilities. The concept of accessible design and practice of accessible development ensures both "direct access" (i.e ...

model of trolley bus was leased from Coast Mountain Bus Company, Vancouver's bus operating company, for a one-year period, for testing of possible benefits of low-floor trolley buses over hybrid diesel buses. During its time in Edmonton the bus was numbered 6000, but its Vancouver number, 2242, was restored when it returned to there. On June 18, 2008, city council voted 7 to 6 in favour of phasing out the trolley bus system in 2009 and 2010. However, city council decided in April 2009 that trolley bus service would be discontinued earlier than originally planned, in order to reduce the city's expected $35 million deficit in 2009. The last day of service was May 2, 2009.''Trolleybus Magazine'' No. 286 (July–August 2009), pp. 87 and 89. National Trolleybus Association (UK).

Fleet

Depots

*Cromdale Garage - formerly Edmonton Radial Railway trolley bus / streetcar barn, then bus facility and historic fleet storage. Has since been demolished, site being repurposed by ETS. *Ferrier Garage - formerly trolley bus barn; now a bus facility. *Mitchell Garage - formerly trolley bus barn; now a bus facility. * Westwood Garage - formerly trolley bus barn; now a bus facility. *Strathcona Garage - formerly bus / trolley bus garage (1951–1986); now home to Old Strathcona Farmer's Market and Edmonton Radial Railway Society High Level Bridge Streetcar storage.

Preservation

At least five of Edmonton's 1982 BBC HR150G trolley buses have been preserved by museums or museum-type groups. Those at museums are No. 125, at the Seashore Trolley Museum (in Kennebunkport, Maine, United States); No. 181, at the

Illinois Railway Museum The Illinois Railway Museum (IRM, reporting mark IRMX) is the largest railroad museum in the United States. It is located in the Chicago metropolitan area at 7000 Olson Road in Union, Illinois, northwest of downtown Chicago. Overview Histo ...

(in Union, Illinois, U.S.); and No. 189, at

the Trolleybus Museum at Sandtoft The Trolleybus Museum at Sandtoft is a transport museum which specialises in the preservation of trolleybuses. It is located by the village of Sandtoft, near Belton on the Isle of Axholme in the English county of Lincolnshire. Description The ...

(U.K.).Isgar, Carl F. (Jan.-Feb. 2010). "Preservation Update". ''Trolleybus Magazine'' No. 289, p. 11. No. 132 has been preserved by the Transit Museum Society in Vancouver.''Trolleybus Magazine'' No. 294 (Nov.-Dec. 2010), pp. 134–136. In addition, a BBC is expected to be added to the City of Edmonton's collection of historic vehicles, which already includes three vintage trolley buses: Pullman 113 (ex-116) and CCF-Brills 148 and 202. No. 199 has been preserved by the

Reynolds Alberta Museum The Reynolds-Alberta Museum is an agricultural, industrial, and transportation museum in Wetaskiwin, Alberta, Canada. The museum is situated on an property containing the main museum building, an aviation display hangar, and its storage facility. ...

in Wetaskiwin,

. No. 152 was expected to be preserved for the future public transit museum in Sofia, Bulgaria. A group of enthusiasts managed to raise the $10,000 needed for its purchase, but the trolleybus had already been scrapped in early 2018.

References

External links

* * {{Urban Electric Transit , id = 1095 , title = Edmonton , trolleybus = yes Bus transport in Alberta Edmonton Transit Service History of Edmonton