Vancouver New Flyer Trolleybuses In 1993
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- Опубликовано: 18 окт 2024
- As part of a multi-city trip around North America in May 1993 I spent a few days in Vancouver BC Canada where I filmed the New Flyer trolleybuses and the fully automated driverless SkyTrain (as it was called in those days) urban railway / metro / subway.
This film primarily shows the trolleybuses - pure electric buses powered from twin overhead wires that do not emit any tailpipe air pollution.
Some North American cities also call this type of vehicle a 'trolleycoach'.
Vancouver sources its electricity from hydro power stations, which means that the power supplies are 100% clean / non polluting.
Thanks to their physical connection to the power supply grid trolleybuses can benefit from unlimited distance and time schedules - in some cities they are even known to work for 24 hours (and longer) in one shift, stopping only for a few minutes to allow a change of human bus driver!
Trolleybuses should not be confused with battery buses, which are also electric but carry their source of energy on them. This adds weight and restricts how far they can travel before needing to be parked somewhere for the batteries to be recharged.
A way to avoid the down-time when battery buses have to be taken out of service for battery charging is for the buses to be fitted with overhead wire power collection equipment and to recharge their batteries whilst travelling in trolleybus mode. This innovation is known as in-motion charging (IMC). It is not seen in this film but currently (2023) it is being planned for Vancouver. The idea being to replace polluting fossil fuel buses (diesel, CNG / LPG types of gas etc). This concept is especially beneficial where the fossil fuel buses travel for most of their time on roads already equipped with overhead power supply wires and to allow buses to use roads on limited services (eg: peak-hour extensions beyond the daily terminus) where the cost of installing overhead power supply wires can bot be justified.
Also seen in this film is the diesel powered bus that has bodywork somewhat similar to what in the US English dialect is known as a 'Vintage Trolley'. This term refers to a first generation streetcar / tram.
Excellent video. Shows how Granville was the main trolley bus connecting thoroughfare. Thanks for sharing
Makes me very nostalgic!
Wonderful seeing these Flyer trolleys again. I have many fond memories of Vancouver in the 80s and 90s. Thank you for sharing.
Hello, thanks for commenting, I'm pleased that you enjoyed it - I enjoyed being there and filming it!
I love Vancouver. Been a few times. To visit family.
I would love to go to Vancouver and to ride on their transport. I got a cousin who lives in Vancouver and she said to me that is such a amazing city with everything to explore.
Nice.
Just to clarify for accuracy purposes,
These aren't "New Flyers". They are just "Flyers".
New Flyer industries formed as a new company after a restructuring and change of the majority of executive officers from the original "Flyer Industries". Linked to the former company in many regards, considered to be a new entity with a different board of directors , but with some executive officers and the majority of frontline employees staying the same.
But this didn't occur until 1986.
The trolleys in this picture were manufactured between 1982 and 1983 , they even wore "Flyer" decals on their interior and exterior panels.
So for historical accuracy, these are actually "Flyer Trolley Buses". Including the word "New" is erroneous.
Grew up with those E901 / 902 buses. Born just after the Brills were retired. Hard to believe that all the buses in this video are gone. The skytrain car seen at Main Street station are still around until 2027 if thing go to plan. Those hideous vintage trolleys tour buses are still around.
Nice to see footage from the 90's! I didn't get to ride those trolley's as much. Do you have some extra footage of the Skytrain around this time?
As it happens, I think I do - my video footage was only converted to computer format earlier this year ... I will try to get this on RUclips in the autumn.
Such a shame, I live in Richmond, and only rode on these beautiful buses ONCE
BC Transit drivers were the worst (even some friends were seriously injured from riding those trollies), plus my second assignment working there had been barely a single week's worth working alongside that agency's H.R. dept, the bitchiest & cattiest one ever that had got imploring me not to ditch their employ :pfFt:
I heard BC Electric trained their drivers better; Translink are doing better because it is not controlled by province to save monry.