Perhaps – but there are downsides and other carbon-costs related to creating and expanding a new network of trolley wires. Running and maintaining miles and miles of wiring is an expensive and laborious process – and one of the major reasons that while buses are zero-tailpipe emissions, Seattle’s “trackless trolleys” are still more expensive to maintain than even the new hybrid buses.

On the other hand – a heck of a lot cheaper than light rail.

Me, I’d like to see an expansion of the fleet of hybrid buses and other buses incorporating alternative fuels and hybrid technologies. The rail thing is neato (sorry seattletransitblog folks) but I guess I have to count myself among the ’shortsighted’ bunch who sees it as overly expensive, inflexible, and largely inaccessible given our geology, history, and urban development progression.

I’ll ride the Link, and hopefully even get to drive it someday – but I can’t help wondering how much new bus service could have been added for comparable cost.

By the way – you don’t have to wait until September for the next excursion hosted by MEHVA – the web site is woefully out of date. The next excursion will be to Snohomish for Kla-Ha-Ya days. Diesels only, natch as the wires don’t run quite that far.

You can view the classic bus and trolley fleet at http://www.mehva.org – drop them an e-mail and ask them to update the flippin’ web site already.

-Jeff

They weren’t labeled, so the first thing I thought of was that someone had rented some old trolley buses for transportation for an event, or something. Quite a sight to see.