A King County Metro trolley bus. (Nathan Vass)

It isn’t just nostalgia. Or the indisputable fact that we already have the infrastructure in place. Or how quiet they are, how good they are at going up Seattle’s hills, or how they qualify for different funding streams. It’s all of that and a lot more. I know battery-electric buses are all the rage right now, because we’ve been conditioned to get excited about what is new. But sometimes oldies remain goodies.

Trolley buses remain financially competitive as a zero-emissions alternative in comparison to battery electric buses (BEBs) for several reasons. I won’t regurgitate the excellent research done by others, but I will link to and summarize it so you have a solid starting point if you ever need ammunition for this argument in your work groups and meetings. 

The three best technical sources I’ve found are this July 2023 report done for MUNI, this Urban Transport Magazine cost comparison of trolley versus battery infrastructure installation, and this January 2025 report done for Poland. Although there’s a lot more in the above links, here are a few points that stood out to me:

  • Trolley buses are more energy efficient because they don’t require overnight charging, which requires a massive electricity draw that shouldn’t be underestimated;
  • A smaller spare ratio of trolleys is needed as compared with BEBs, because trolleys don’t need to dwell at the base to charge;
  • Trolleys have increased energy efficiency because they use electricity only as needed while in operation;
  • They’re better for the environment because their batteries are much smaller (less strip-mining for precious metals);
  • They’re lighter, and thus result in less wear and tear on roads;
  • Trolleys fit the federal definition of fixed-route service, a la rail, and thus qualify for funding that BEBs can’t;
  • Trolley infrastructure is already proven, and in place.

King County Metro’s current BEB fleet bears out these observations, particularly in that they’ve historically been unreliable for use on all-day runs. There are also plenty of YouTube videos detailing why trolleys surpass battery vehicles, especially as borne out by data in the last several years. The second half of this video is useful in breaking down some of the electrical engineering problems that may bite us in the future. 

The above points speak for themselves, from the standpoints of both fiscal and environmental responsibility. I’m totally ignoring the additional fact that driving trolleys is just plain more fun. It’s like driving a manual transmission: more challenging, sure, but also more involving, more present, and ultimately more enjoyable; like any sports or art or other craft, trolleys are a skill that feels good to finally master. They ask for more from us, and in turn reveal and concretize more of our abilities, the way playing chess is more fun than playing checkers. 

They also represent a unique asset in defining Seattle’s multimodal dimensions, those linguistically, culturally and civically multitudinous qualities which cause us to be the rare American city that feels about as European as one of our cities can be. History is not often allowed to breathe or show its face in West Coast America, but trolleys carry that quality we feel when we cross the Atlantic or visit the Eastern Seaboard, the tangible reminder that generations existed before we did, and they knew a thing or two we can still learn from. 

The challenge of living in a society focused on short-term gains instead of long-term benefits is that obviously good things are sometimes destroyed at a lasting loss to everyone. We use the term “capitalism” as shorthand for describing this problem, but the best example of this when it comes to trolley buses is Moscow, who recently dismantled their trolley network, formerly the world’s largest, in what today is almost universally recognized as a colossal mistake.

The official reasons given at the time now read as obviously false — they even tried to suggest that diesel fumes would be more environmentally friendly than electrical output! We now know Moscow’s decision had to do with lucrative contracts with BEB manufacturers, redistribution of routes among operating companies, and the erroneous assumption that they’d save electricity. Embarrassingly, the BEB and diesel replacements are now unable to efficiently heat themselves, and demand even more energy consumption than the previous system, which was tried and true since 1933. 

Meanwhile, Budapest and numerous other cities are expanding their trolley bus lines, investing in new overhead and equipment — including, eventually, our own Seattle! These lists do not include other thriving locations, from the massive network in nearby Vancouver, B.C. to far-flung Chelyabinsk, which I’m told has a very good deputy minister of road management and transport, unusual for Russia.

In this Clean Technica article, Michael Barnard writes about Nancy as a useful counterexample to Moscow:

“Similarly, the French city of Nancy offers a cautionary and instructive tale of urban transit innovation. In 2000, Nancy replaced its traditional trolleybuses with an experimental guided-bus system called TVR, which proved unreliable and costly over two decades. After finally scrapping the TVR in 2023, Nancy returned to trolleybus technology, deploying bi-articulated IMC trolleybuses on its busiest urban corridors. This return was not nostalgic but rather pragmatic, leveraging partial re-use of existing overhead wiring while employing off-wire battery operation to maintain aesthetics in the historic city center. Early public feedback in Nancy has been strongly positive, citing improved reliability, comfort, and environmental performance.”

I know BEBs are more politically popular at the moment, but trolleys represent a more stable, proven, efficient, and fiscally responsible choice. Thankfully we don’t have to choose between one or the other, of course, but if we prioritize expanding our trolley network, I think future generations will be thanking us. 

Links & Further Reading:

Reports:

Articles/Videos

Problems with BEBs vs Trolleys:

Trolley expansion internationally:

Just nerding out:

Are Trolleybuses Being Forgotten in Metro’s Rapid Transition to Battery Buses?
Article Author
Nathan Vass
Website

Nathan Vass is an artist, filmmaker, photographer, and author by day, and a Metro bus driver by night, where his community-building work has been showcased on TED, NPR, The Seattle Times, KING 5 and landed him a spot on Seattle Magazine’s 2018 list of the 35 Most Influential People in Seattle. He has shown in over forty photography shows is also the director of nine films, six of which have shown at festivals, and one of which premiered at Henry Art Gallery. His book, The Lines That Make Us, is a Seattle bestseller and 2019 WA State Book Awards finalist.