The first trolleybus was created in 1882 in Germany by Werner von Siemens. The experimental line was built in the city of Insterburg (now Chernyakhovsk, Kaliningrad region). The first regular trolleybus line was opened in the Galensee suburb of Berlin on April 29, 1882.
1882 Germany.
The contact wires were located at a fairly close distance, and short circuits occurred from a strong wind. The first trolleybuses did not have rods; for current collection, a trolley was used, which either rolled freely along the wires due to cable tension, or had its own electric motor and moved ahead of the trolleybus with its help. Later, rods with wheeled and later sliding current collectors were invented.
One of the first English trolleybuses in Leeds. 1911
On the line in Czechoslovakia. Photo from the 1900s
In 1902, the magazine "Automobile" published a note on the tests of "an automobile driven by electrical energy received from wires along the path, but not walking on rails, but on an ordinary road." The car was intended for the transport of goods. It happened on March 26, 1902, and this day can be considered the birthday of the domestic trolleybus. The crew part was manufactured by Peter Frese, and the engine and electrical equipment were developed by Count S. I. Shulenberg.
Judging by the descriptions, it was a fifty-pound carriage, working from a line with a voltage of 110 volts and a current of 7 amperes. The carriage was connected to the wires by a cable, and at its end there was a special trolley that slid along the wires when the crew moved. In tests, "the car easily swerved from a straight line, backed up and turned." However, then the idea of development did not receive and the cargo trolley bus was forgotten for about thirty years.
The first trolleybus from Frese & Co. 1903 St. Petersburg.
And in Moscow, the trolleybus first appeared in 1933. Traffic on the first route, at that time "single-track", from Tverskaya Zastava (Belorussky railway station) to the village of Vsekhsvyatsky (now the area of the Sokol metro station) was opened on November 15, 1933. In Moscow, the idea of building a trolleybus line was first expressed in 1924, but its implementation began only 9 years later. In December 1932, domestic factories were entrusted with the design and construction of the first two experimental Soviet trolleybuses. In the summer of 1933, at the Yaroslavl Automobile Plant, according to a project developed at the Research Institute of the Automotive Industry, the production of a chassis (based on the Ya-6 bus) began. In October they were sent to the car factory. Stalin (ZIS, now AMO-ZIL), where the bodies made here were installed on them. By November 1, 1933, two newly released trolleybuses, which received the LK index (Lazar Kaganovich), were towed from the ZIS to the Dynamo plant, where electrical equipment was installed on them (the current was collected by means of rollers). The first technical tests of the machines were carried out on the territory of this plant.
The first Soviet trolleybus had a wooden frame with metal sheathing, a body 9 m long, 2.3 m wide and weighing 8.5 tons. It could reach a maximum speed of 50 km/h. The cabin had 37 seats (the seats were soft), mirrors, nickel-plated handrails, luggage nets; electric stoves were installed under the seats. The doors were opened manually: the front ones - by the driver, the rear ones - by the conductor. The cars were painted in dark blue (there was a creamy yellow stripe on top, a bright yellow stroke on the bottom). Shiny metal shields with the inscription "From workers, engineers and employees of the State Automobile Plant named after Stalin, the Dynamo plant, the Yaroslavl Automobile Plant, NATI" were attached to the frontal part of the body. In October 1933, a single-track trolleybus line was mounted along the Leningrad Highway from Tverskaya Zastava to the bridge of the Okruzhnaya Railway in Pokrovsky-Streshnevo. On November 5, N. Khrushchev, Secretary of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, attended the tests of this trolleybus, and on November 6, an official trip of the acceptance committee consisting of the chairman of the Moscow City Council N. Bulganin, engineers, technicians and workers who manufactured trolleybuses took place along the line. From November 7 to November 15, drivers were practicing driving in a single car.
The regular movement of the only trolleybus began at 11 am on November 15, 1933. The next day, the time of its operation was determined - from 7 am to 24 pm. The average speed was 36 km / h, the car overcame the entire line in 30 minutes. So the first trolleybus line was opened in Moscow and in the USSR. Mass production of trolleybuses was established three years later in Yaroslavl.
The first Moscow trolleybus, 1933
“The double-decker trolleybus is a great success among Muscovites. There are too many fans to ride “higher”. The second floor is always crowded with adults and children. Some citizen, apparently desperate to take a seat on the second floor, climbed the stairs to the roof of the trolleybus. - Where are you climbing, citizen? I shouted. - Get down! A three-story trolleybus has not yet been made for you. The citizen looked at me with pleading eyes and said in despair: - What should I do? The second floor is full, and the roof is free. I can't leave Moscow without taking a high-altitude trolley ride. I had to take up the whistle. ”From the newspaper "Moskovsky transportnik" dated November 7, 1939.
In 1935, one double-decker trolleybus was purchased from the English company English Electric Company. “On the instructions of N.S. Khrushchev, a double-decker trolleybus of the latest type has been ordered in England and will arrive in the near future,” Rabochaya Moskva wrote on January 8, 1937. - It has a metal body, three-axle chassis, 74 seats, weighs 8,500 kg. The quiet operation of the main units of English cars, the rear axle, the engine, the motor-compressor, the current collectors, as well as the smooth start and stop are the result of a carefully thought-out design and flawless installation.
“Muscovites looked with amazement at the huge trolleybus. Almost all passengers wanted to get to the second floor. The driver, Comrade Kubrikov, speaks well of this trolleybus, the Moscow Transportnik newspaper wrote on September 3, 1937. “A wonderful car. Management is very easy and obedient. We thought that due to the bulkiness of the car it would not be stable, but our fears turned out to be unnecessary.
The trolleybus was delivered by sea to Leningrad, and its transportation to Moscow resulted in a whole epic! Due to the huge size of the double-decker trolleybus, the railroad categorically refused to accept it for transportation. From Leningrad to Kalinin (Tver), he was towed along the highway (what this highway was like in 1937, no need to explain). Only on June 29, 1937, the two-story building arrived in Kalinin. Here the car was loaded onto a barge and in early July was delivered to the capital, to the second trolleybus depot, where preparations for testing began. In the course of it, curious details began to come to light. It turned out that, despite the huge size, the "foreigner" is not so roomy! Due to the high center of gravity, passengers on the second floor were strictly forbidden to stand while moving. With an impressive body height (4.58 m), the height of the ceilings on the first and second floors was 1.78 and 1.76 m, respectively, so it was also very difficult to stand on the first floor even for a person of average height. The trolleybus had only one door for boarding and disembarking passengers - the rear. It had neither a front platform nor a front door.
The specifics of urban transport in London had nothing to do with Moscow. In the English capital, urban transport, even during peak hours, did not know what a crowded salon was. And a small number of passengers quite allowed to do with one door. In the 30s in Moscow, even at off-peak times, buses, trolleybuses and trams often simply burst at the seams. The flaws of the double-decker trolleybus did not end there. It turned out that the contact network of the Moscow trolleybus was unsuitable for the operation of imported vehicles - it had to be raised by a whole meter.
The main thoroughfare of pre-war Moscow - Gorky Street and Leningradskoye Highway - were chosen as a "testing ground". The contact network was raised. In September, trial operation began, which lasted about a month. In October, the "two-story" was towed to the Yaroslavl Automobile Plant, which in the pre-war years was the main supplier of trolleybuses in the USSR. Here it was dismantled, carefully studied and actually copied. The Soviet analogue of the English trolleybus received the designation YATB-3 - the Yaroslavl trolleybus, the third model. It was not possible to create a complete analogue of the "Englishman" - the Soviet trolleybus turned out to be heavier. It weighed 10.7 tons. Double-decker trolleybuses from Yaroslavl began to arrive in Moscow in the summer of 1938. The Englishman also returned. In Moscow, all double-decker trolleybuses were concentrated in the first trolleybus depot. Initially, they ran between Okhotny Ryad and the Northern River Station. After the opening of the All-Union Agricultural Exhibition in September 1939, double-decker trolleybuses entered the route connecting the main exhibition of the country with the center of the capital.
After conscientiously translating the operating instructions for a double-decker trolleybus into Russian, Moscow trolleybus workers were surprised to find that it allows passengers to smoke in the passenger compartment on the second floor! “Smoking on the second floor of a double-decker trolleybus causes dissatisfaction among non-smoking passengers,” wrote Moskovsky Transportnik on February 14, 1940. “The Mosttrolleybus Trust should be banned from smoking in trolleybuses.”
Having released in 1938 - 1939. an experimental batch of 10 "two-story buildings", the Yaroslavl Automobile Plant stopped their production. The looming threat of war is usually cited as the cause. In fact, until August 1941, the Yaroslavl Automobile Plant continued to produce single-story trolleybuses. After that, the production of civilian products was curtailed, the production of weapons, ammunition and artillery tractors began. Other reasons for the cessation of the production of "two-story buildings" look more convincing.
The obvious unsuitability of their design for work on Moscow streets had an effect. Even the appearance of the front door in the back of the trolleybus did not help. Try to stand in the cabin of a car bouncing on potholes with a ceiling height of 178 cm!
And the most important reason - back in January 1938, N.S. Khrushchev was appointed First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Party of Ukraine. There was simply no one to "push" double-decker trolleybuses into the capital.
YATB-3. Lower saloon.
YATB-3. Upper saloon.
Not a single “two-story building” was evacuated from Moscow. It was impossible to transport them by rail, and towing them hundreds and thousands of kilometers by tractors was even more so, because in the fall of 1941 each tractor was literally worth its weight in gold.
YaTB-3 on Gorky street. Autumn 1941
Veterans of the first trolleybus depot recalled that in October 1941 they received an order: as soon as fascist motorcyclists appear at the park gates, douse double-decker trolleybuses with kerosene and set them on fire. For this, barrels of kerosene, tanks with rags were installed near the cars, and a special duty officer was appointed. Fortunately, the fascist motorcyclists did not appear at the gates of the park, just a few kilometers short of it.
In the post-war years, double-decker trolleybuses were excluded from service. The operating experience of these machines has shown that they are ill-suited for our regions. Newer trolleybuses were made single-storey, designed to carry a large number of passengers (mainly standing). It was decided to abandon the use of double-decker trolleybuses in favor of articulated vehicles. But these appeared only at the end of the 50s from the gates of the SVARZ plant. Not a single copy of the YaTB-3 trolleybus has survived to this day.The last two "two-story buildings" were decommissioned in 1953, although these cars, which had all-metal bodies, could have served longer. What was the reason?
At one time, there was a legend that Joseph Vissarionovich was driving from the Kremlin to a dacha in Kuntsevo, and a double-decker trolleybus was walking in front of his Packard, swaying from side to side. And it seemed to the leader of all peoples that the “two-story building” was about to fall on its side. And Comrade Stalin ordered to liquidate such trolleybuses. This common version has nothing to do with the truth, if only because, when traveling between the Kremlin and the Near Dacha, Stalin's cortege could not cross anywhere with the route of a double-decker trolleybus.
Another version says that the double-decker trolleybuses were taken out of service after a series of overturns, accompanied by a large number of victims. The author of the article even met with several "witnesses" of such disasters. However, when they named the places of incidents, it became clear that nothing like this could be there because the trolleybus lines in the indicated places are unsuitable for the movement of double-decker cars. By the way, the archives also did not reveal evidence of the overturning of the "two-story buildings". This is largely due to the fact that they were operated in strict accordance with the instructions. The conductors did not allow cars to be overloaded, they carefully monitored the filling of the second floor.
But the most plausible reason, it seems to me, is the following: for the normal operation of double-decker trolleybuses, it was necessary to raise the contact network by one meter. It was this meter that killed them! Indeed, in Moscow there was not a single line that would be fully serviced by "two-story buildings". And they were operated in parallel with conventional, one-story trolleybuses. But if a double-decker trolleybus ran well under a raised contact network, then this cannot be said about single-decker trolleybuses. “Working on a simple “yatebeshka” under such a raised contact network is not even work, but a real torment,” one of the veterans of the Moscow trolleybus told the author of this article (Mikhail Egorov - d1). - On these lines, an ordinary trolleybus is almost tightly tied to the wires, like a tram to the rails! To stop - do not drive up! Stopped car - do not go around! Yes, and the rods began to fly off the wires more often. Passengers are full of complaints. If Khrushchev had been allowed to steer such a car - and for sure we would not have had any double-decker trolleybuses!
So, having got on the line with a raised contact network, a one-story trolleybus almost completely lost one of its most important qualities - maneuverability. By the beginning of World War II, there were 11 "two-story buildings" in Moscow. And ordinary, one-story cars - 572 units! How many drivers and passengers of the Moscow trolleybus daily cursed double-decker trolleybuses and their unlucky "godfather"?!
London transport workers did not have such problems - all the trolleybuses there were double-decker. However, after the war, Moscow specialists tried to increase the maneuverability of single-decker vehicles by installing elongated pantograph rods on them. This experiment ended in complete failure - when moving a trolleybus with elongated rods, vibration occurred at their ends, which tore the rods off the wires. By the way, for this reason, it is impossible to increase the length of the trolleybus rods more than the one they have today. So Moscow transport workers had only two ways: either all trolleybuses and trams would be single-story, or, as in London, double-story. There is no third. Moscow, as you know, took the first path.
Well, although this is not a trolleybus, nevertheless I decided to show you this interesting vehicle here:
German trailer bus. On January 30, 1959, testing of double-decker buses manufactured by the GDR began in the 3rd bus depot. The first model is a tractor with a double-deck trailer body with 56 seats, more than 100 passengers in total. The second model is an English type for 70 passengers. (Newspaper "Evening Moscow").
On February 12, 1959, double-decker buses designed by Z. Goltz (GDR) entered route 111 of the 3rd bus depot. (Newspaper "Evening Moscow").
In 1959, two German Do54 buses and one double-decker passenger trailer for a DS-6 tractor appeared in Moscow, of which only 7 were built in the GDR. The total length of such a trailer with a tractor was 14800 mm, of which the trailer itself accounted for 112200 mm. On the first floor of the trailer, 16 seated and 43 standing places were provided, on the second - 40 seated and 3 standing. The first floor was connected to the second by two 9-step stairs. The height of the cabin on the first floor is 180 cm, on the second - 171 cm. The diesel engine of the tractor with a capacity of 120 hp. allowed this design to develop a speed of 50 km / h. Initially, this trailer, along with two double-decker buses, ran along route No. 111 from the Oktyabrskaya metro station to Troparevo, and then all three cars were sent on the route from Sverdlov Square to Vnukovo Airport. These cars were driven until 1964.
The first Soviet cargo trolleybuses began to appear in the 30s. last century. These were handicraft converted YATB passenger vehicles. Such trucks were used for the own needs of trolleybus depots.
Gradually, the scope of such machines began to expand and the operators thought about using "horned" ones in those places where there was no contact network. This problem became especially urgent in the conditions of shortage of fuel during the war.
Cargo trolleybus on Gorky street. Photo 1941
In particular, in the capital of the USSR, on the initiative of the director of the 2nd trolleybus fleet, I.S. Efremov, the first real cargo trolleycars were built - trolleybuses equipped with an additional set of batteries, so that they could deviate considerable distances from the contact network. According to some reports, such vehicles worked in Moscow until 1955. The next step was the creation of trolleybuses equipped with internal combustion engines in addition to an electric motor. Such machines could deviate from the wires for even greater distances, although they did this extremely rarely. Experiments with such machines in the late 1950s. at first it was installed by the Uritsky plant, the main manufacturer of trolleybuses in the USSR, but its cargo trolleybuses remained single prototypes. "To the masses" cargo trolleybuses were introduced by another plant - Sokolnichesky car repair, better known as SVARZ.
Freight trolleybus "from childhood". It was these trolleybuses, full of toys, that drove into the basements of Detsky Mir.
They were equipped with two parallel drive systems - from an internal combustion engine and from an electric motor. The basis of the first 5-ton version of the TG was the original spar frame, on which a high van body was installed with two side sliding and rear double doors, four windows in the roof and a spacious double cabin. The TG-4 variant had an onboard platform. The trolley cars were equipped with a 70-horsepower gasoline engine, a gearbox, a radiator lining from a GAZ-51 car, axles and wheels from a MAZ-200, electrical equipment from an MTB-82D trolleybus with a DK-202 traction motor with a power of 78 kW.
The Great Soviet Encyclopedia classifies the trolleybus as a type of railless urban transport that combines the advantages of a bus and a tram. Traction motors of trolleybuses operate on direct current, which comes from the contact network from overhead trolley wires. The leaders are the USA, the Czech Republic and, of course, the USSR. The countries of the former Soviet Union - Russia, Ukraine and Belarus and now produce trolleybuses.
So, when did the first trolleybus appear in the world? The idea of creating a trolleybus was first published by the magazine "Society of Arts vol.XXI" in 1880 by the English doctor William Siemens (Siemens). His brother - engineer Werner von Siemens in 1882 in the city of Easterburg (now it is the city of Chernyakhovsk, Kaliningrad region, and then Germany) created the first trolleybus. Well, the first trolleybus line equipped with contact wires was opened on April 29, 1882 in the vicinity of Berlin. Its main disadvantage was that the contact wires were located very close to each other and often closed from a strong wind.
In appeared since 1933 on the streets of Moscow. These were LK-type trolleybuses. The name is an abbreviation for "Lazar Kaganovich". They were jointly manufactured by the teams of the Moscow Automobile Plant named after Stalin, the Dynamo plant, the Yaroslavl Automobile Plant and the Scientific and Automotive Institute (NATI). The engine power of this trolleybus is 60 kW, the speed is up to 59 km/h. Weight 8.75 tons. The trolleybus was based on a one-story wooden body. The salon was designed for 45 passengers. The LK trolleybus was produced in 1933-36. Operated until 1949 on the streets of Moscow and Kyiv.
Kyiv specialists from the design bureau of the tram plant and the traffic service visited Moscow at the beginning of 1935 to exchange experience in studying the structure of the trolley bus, driving techniques and maintenance. After that, LK trolleybuses began to be manufactured in Kyiv. In this regard, next to the plant on the street. Krasnoarmeiskaya began to mount a contact network, a trolleybus fleet was built. The first trolleybus route in Kyiv was opened on November 5, 1935. Its length was 3.5 km. 5 self-made trolleybuses of the LK-5 model ran on it. Kievans and guests of the capital liked the new type of urban transport.
The first trolleybus at the Yaroslavl Automobile Plant (now YaMZ) was created in July 1936. This model was called YATB-1. This trolleybus was designed jointly by specialists from NATI, YaAZ and the Dynamo plant. A body with a wooden frame was attached to a riveted channel frame. The YaTB-1 trolleybus had a DTB-60 electric motor, 35 passenger seats, pneumatic door opening, electric heating, sliding windows, windshield wipers and pneumatic brakes. The weight of the trolleybus is about 9 tons. The YaTB-1 model was produced for about 2 years. In two years, about 450 vehicles were manufactured at YaAZ. After 1937, the trolleybus model was improved and modernized and, accordingly, renamed YATB-2. This modification has become a little lighter - about 8.3 tons with dimensions: length 9 m, width 2.4 m. The cabin was designed for 50 seated passengers. In the YaTB-2 model, a semi-metal frame body was used. The trolleybus developed a speed of up to 50 km/h. The YaTB-2 model was produced until 1953.
On the streets of many European cities in the 30s of the last century, double-decker trolleybuses drove. This idea of transporting more passengers in one car appealed to the Moscow transport workers. In 1937, two three-axle trolleybuses were purchased from EEC (English Electric) in England, and one of them was double-decker. Taking this two-story model as a basis, 10 similar YaTB-3 trolleybuses were built at the Yaroslavl plant. They were operated in Moscow from July 1938 to 1948 along the current Mira Avenue. Dimensions of a 2-storey trolleybus: length - 9.4 m, height - 4.7 m, weight about 10.7 tons. There were 40 seats on the first floor of YaTB-3, and 32 seats on the second floor. The total capacity of the trolleybus was 100 people. Movement speed up to 55 km/h. If you remember, in the film "Foundling" was immortalized double-decker trolleybus YATB-3. The main disadvantage of these trolleybuses was their limited height due to the contact network. Accordingly, the height inside the interior of the premises of one floor was only 1.7 meters. For comparison, inside the single-decker YaTB-1 trolleybus, the height was 1.9 meters.
All subsequent models were already produced as one-story, and a large passenger capacity was achieved by increasing the number of standing places. The first Soviet trolleybus with a semi-metal body (all the previous ones were wooden) was produced from April 1941 by the Yaroslavl Automobile Plant, then the YaTB-4A trolleybus with 33 seats was produced. The weight of the trolleybus is about 7.8 tons. This model was operated on Moscow routes until 1952.
Soviet trolleybuses were developed and produced not only at the Yaroslavl Automobile Plant. Also, for example, a model of the high-floor MTB-82 trolleybus was produced, the so-called. medium capacity. Trolleybus. MTB-82 - the first trolleybus with an all-metal body accommodated 65 passengers and was mass-produced from 1945 to 1960. Could reach speeds up to 48 km / h. First, the production of the MTB-82 trolleybus was launched at the plant of the People's Commissariat of the USSR Aviation Industry in Tushino near Moscow, the so-called "plant number 82". The name of the MTB-82 model is an abbreviation of the words "Moscow TrolleyBus", the index corresponds to the military number of the secret plant. But, since 1951, the entire production of the MTB-82 model was transferred to the city of Engels, Saratov Region. Since that time, the Uritsky plant (now JSC "Trolza") has become the largest plant for the production of trolleybuses. Then more than 5,000 MTB-82 trolleybuses were produced. The rightfully successful model MTB-82 took a leading position among Soviet trolleybuses. The trolleybus had several modifications: a modernized version (MTB-82d) and an export version (MTB-82m). The latest samples of MTB-82 trolleybuses were finalized in Kutaisi (Georgia) until 1983. Only a few copies of the MTB-82 trolleybuses have survived to this day, which are rare exhibits for museums.
The next milestone of trolleybuses produced in the USSR was SVARZ-TBES-VSKhV, which was manufactured in small quantities at the Moscow Sokolnichesky Car Repair Plant (abbreviated as SVARZ) from 1955 to 1958. SVARZ-TBES-VSHV was created specifically to work along the exhibition route on the territory of VDNKh. The trolleybus had an all-metal body, accommodated 60 passengers, including 42 seats, developed a speed of up to 50 km / h, weighed about 8.9 tons. This model was in service until 1971. The trolleybus had several modifications for the transport of urban passengers. Modification: SVARZ-MTBES (USSR) was produced in 1957-1964 and operated until 1975 on the routes of Moscow. Dimensions SVARZ-MTBES: length 10 m, width 2.6 m, capacity 60 passengers. Movement speed up to 52 km/h.
Another modification of the SVARZ TS-1 trolleybus. This four-axle articulated trolleybus had an automatic group control system. SVARZ TS-1 was produced in 1959-1963. A total of 45 of these trolleybuses were produced. On this model, 2 E20 type engines with a power of 180 kW each were installed. Trolleybus dimensions: length 17.5 m, width 2.7 m. Trolleybus speed up to 62 km/h. The total capacity is 224 passengers, of which 45 are seated. The modified SVARZ TS-2 was produced from 1964 to 1968. In total, 90 such trolleybuses were produced, which were operated in Moscow until 1975.
It became the first city through which unusual cars with high “horns” (horns-terminals) connected to wires ran. The routes were different.
Out of touch
Years have passed, and the trackless mechanical transport "luxury" of the contact type with an electric drive has become a familiar means of transportation. Trolleybus has long been seen not only in Zlatoglavaya, but also in other cities of Russia, the republics of the former USSR. However, the routes of the Moscow trolleybus (there are 104 of them) have, perhaps, the richest history. In a small article, it is difficult to retell it completely.
But what awaits the Moscow trolleybus ahead (the history of the routes will be presented below)? It is said that by 2020, thanks to the rapid optimization of the network, this mode of transport will die for a long time. Back in 2015, bloggers wrote about the possible cancellation or shortening of 25 routes, the partial dismantling of contact lines. The total length of trolleybus "threads" in Moscow is 600 km.
Leading Internet diaries reflect on the fate of trolleybuses No. 4, 7, 33, 49, 52, 84, serving the Southwestern District of Moscow. The most determined representatives of the virtual brotherhood were alarmed in earnest: in their opinion, the industry is dying.
There was a vicious circle. Municipal Unitary Enterprise Mosgortrans explains that there is an acute shortage of trolleybuses for all kilometers. Meanwhile, the state unitary enterprise actually stopped updating the rolling stock (despite the fact that no one canceled the Moscow transport development program, according to which “workaholics of Moscow streets” are growing). Will Moscow trolleybuses (see photo in the article) disappear soon?
To the delight of the citizens
We will not guess whether the “stags”, which are being more and more actively forced out by buses, will be eliminated, or are they mere inventions. But residents of Maroseyka, Pokrovka, Pyatnitskaya are no longer in contact. The dismantling of the lines has taken place. At the same time, the management of Mosgortrans does not see anything wrong with this, assuring that the trolleybus still occupies its stable niche, the enterprise will steadily develop.
Indeed, in the capital's reconstruction program "My Street" there is a clause on the dismantling of part of the lines. However, the replacement of trolleybuses by buses, according to experts, is just a temporary phenomenon. Well, let's talk about how Moscow trolleybuses, whose history contains a lot of interesting things, began to surf the expanses of the capital.
1933 First line, suburban
How did Moscow trolleybuses run in the 1930s (routes have changed more than once since then)? Trolleybus number one set off on a long journey on November 15, 1933 (it was planned to launch much earlier, in 1924, but it did not work out). The line (it was mounted in October 1933) crossed the Leningradskoe highway, continued from Tverskaya Zastava to Pokrovsky Streshnev.
Railless transport with pantographs (horns-terminals), as planned, was used in suburban areas (in the center of Moscow, the first violin was the tram). There was a double-track line to the Dynamo sports arena, in the rest of the way they managed with a single-track line. Moscow trolleybuses were supposed to conquer this world. And they did.
True, on the day of the launch, two newcomers were supposed to go on the route, but only one appeared. Immediately after receiving the second giant from the factory, an “industrial injury” was expected: it fell under the weak floor of the new garage and suffered. But everything returned to normal. The traffic schedule was as follows: from 7.00 to 24.00.
1934 Continuation
Moscow trolleybuses became more and more popular. At the dawn of 1934, the ancestral line had already stretched from the New Triumphal Gates (Tverskaya Zastava) straight to the center, to the square, which until 1918 was called Voskresenskaya (now Revolution). 34 year ended with the opening of the II line. She went from the Gate to Smolenskaya (Arbat) and to the Dorogomilovskaya outpost itself.
Trolleybus route No. 2 entered service at the end of the year (12/10/1934). The movement began from the Dragomilovskaya outpost. Having left for Revolution Square along Bolshaya Dragomilovskaya, the "horned" transport went to the Arbat. From there - to the Comintern, to the final one called "Okhotny Ryad". By that time, thirty-six vehicles were running on both existing trolleybus lines.
1935 Third line
The third trolleybus "web" was "woven" by people in the fall of 1935. She moved through the center of the city. Thanks to her, it was possible to visit Petrovka, in Karetny Ryad, on Sukharevskaya Square, from there along Prospekt Mira (then 1st Meshchanskaya Street) to wave to Rzhevsky (the station has long been known to everyone as Rizhsky). It would seem that just recently only one trolleybus was running, and by the end of 1935, Muscovites were served by 57 LK cars!
"Lazar Kaganovich" - we mentioned this first Moscow trolleybus, routes. The list of routes, their detailed characteristics would take more than one page of the story.
In 1936, the trolleybus met with an active "offensive" on its rail competitor - the tram. The rails were removed from the northern part of the Garden Ring. Instead of a "rumbler" they launched a smooth "Insect" (route "B" - from Kudrinskaya Square to Kursk Station).
In the 37th, the trolleybus was already actively “settling in” routes starting from the Garden Ring and continuing along Kalyaevskaya and Novoslobodskaya streets, Kuznetsky Most ... Muscovites approved high-floor cars of the YATB-1 brand. They especially liked the head of the Soviet state, Nikita Khrushchev.
Two floors, but not a house!
In 1938, a fast and convenient trolleybus became a good friend for everyone to visit the former patriarchal fishing settlement - Berezhkovskaya embankment, a good omen of the Sparrow Hills, rushed to Oktyabrskaya (former Kaluga) Square ... From the Sokol metro station along the Leningrad highway, people got to Izmailovo , from Krymskaya Square along the Garden Ring and Mytnaya Street - to the Danilovsky Market.
Moscow trolleybuses covered ten routes. The routes were laid on the sites dismantled Already in 1937-1939. 2-story handsome YATB-3 and a trolleybus of an English company were walking along Leningradsky Prospekt. To put the "lanky curiosity" into use, the nets had to be raised by one meter (from 4.8 to 5.8 m). In the 39th, trolleybuses ran along Mira (prospect) to the All-Union Agricultural Exhibition (agricultural exhibition). In 1953, due to the inconvenience of use, they got rid of the hulks.
The heyday and evening of the trolleybus era
Before the start of the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945, there were 583 trolleybuses and 11 routes in Moscow. On January 1, 1952, the capital could already boast of 786 trolleybuses and a markedly increased number of directions in which they moved.
In the 1950s, residential areas were actively growing on the outskirts of the capital. Trolleybus routes were laid there (in particular, to Serebryany Bor). Wherever Muscovites or guests of the capital went - to Izmailovo, Volkhonka, Varshavskoe highway, the Luzhniki stadium and to a huge number of other places, a smart trolley bus came to their aid.
Time flies. More than 60 years have passed since the opening of the new circle line at the All-Union Agricultural Exhibition in 1954. By the end of 1960, the total length of trolleybus routes reached 540 kilometers, united by 36 routes.
In 1964-68. in the South-Western residential area, an "accordion" - an articulated trolley bus - ran. However, in 1975, he was finally removed from passenger traffic. In 1964, there were 1811 trolleybuses in Moscow. By 1972, the network reached 1253 km and was recognized as the longest (extended) on the globe.
In the 1970s-1980s, new buildings (Novogireevo, Ivanovskoye, Orekhovo-Borisovo, etc.) were surrounded by routes. In August 1993, one-way traffic was introduced in Moscow (this is how roads were unloaded and their safety increased). Some of the lines have been closed. Subsequently, the reductions continued.
The progenitors of modern trolleybus transport appeared at about the same time in two parts of Germany.In 1882, the German engineer Werner von Siemens opened a trolleybus service between Berlin and its suburbs (Spandau). At the same time, a 4 km long trolleybus line, designed by Max Schimmann, appeared in Königstein (Saxon Switzerland).
In the USSR, a passenger trolleybus first appeared on November 15, 1933 in Moscow, on a route that ran along the Leningrad highway. The first such machines in the country were called LK-1 - the abbreviation meant "Lazar Kaganovich". Three plants participated in the creation of these trolleybuses: AMO (now the Likhachev plant), the Yaroslavl Automobile Plant (YaAZ) and the Dynamo plant. By the end of 1934, the number of trolleybuses in Moscow increased to 50, and since 1936 trolleybus routes appeared on the streets of Kyiv, Rostov-on-Don, Tbilisi and Leningrad.
LK trolleybuses had a number of drawbacks, in particular, they were made with a large number of load-bearing wooden elements that quickly failed and sometimes poorly protected the traction electrical equipment from moisture, which led to current leakage to the body. Also, the LC lacked an air brake (only mechanical and electric), windshield wipers, heating and other elements important for passenger comfort. In total, about a hundred of these trolleybuses were produced. In Leningrad, only 7 cars of the LK-5 model and one three-axle trolleybus LK-3 were operated. Unfortunately, not a single copy has survived after the tragedy that occurred on December 26, 1937 in Leningrad on the embankment of the Fontanka River. At the LK-5 trolleybus, which was going from the Finland Station, the front right wheel burst. The car turned around and fell into the river, killing 13 passengers. On the same night, the head of the Trolleybus Service, the chief engineer of the park and many others, who were recognized as the perpetrators of the disaster, were arrested and subsequently shot. The LK themselves after this incident were recognized as unsafe and immediately decommissioned in the city on the Neva.
Launch of a trolleybus in Leningrad
In Leningrad, trolleybus traffic was opened on October 21, 1936. It was opened by trolleybuses of the Yaroslavl Automobile Plant YaTB-1. Unlike the LK trolleybuses, the YaTB-1 bodies had a semi-streamlined shape. The body frame, however, still remained wooden, sheathed with thin sheet steel. During operation, it was found that electrical equipment is still not sufficiently protected from moisture and dust. This was the main cause of failures. From the moment of its appearance in Leningrad, trolleybuses were immediately positioned as superior vehicles. Heating systems, soft seats, cozy curtains on the windows, and, most importantly, a strictly fixed passenger capacity, favorably distinguished the trolleybus from other types of public transport. Of course, travel in such comfortable conditions was expensive. If in 1936 it was possible to travel the entire route in a tram for 15 kopecks, then a trip in a trolleybus would have cost 20 kopecks per zone. The price for 1936 is not small, but, nevertheless, the trolleybuses were so bright and comfortable that they immediately attracted great attention - Leningraders perceived them as an attraction. Both children and adults rode the trolleybus, and it was considered a special chic to ride a girl on a trolleybus. At the same time, the policeman filmed especially zealous wheelers on the third round with the comment: “Citizens, have a conscience! The others want to ride too!” The new mode of transport is actively gaining popularity. By the way, on April 24, 1937, night trolleybus traffic was introduced in Leningrad. It was carried out up to 3 hours 30 minutes, and the interval of movement did not exceed 10 minutes. The fare at night remained the same. YaTB trolleybuses were operated in Leningrad until the mid-1950s as a passenger, and as a technical assistance - until the end of the 60s.
War time
From the very beginning of the blockade, the workers of the Leningrad trolley bus courageously continued to work, despite shelling, constant wire breaks, and damage to the roadway. Only on December 8, 1941, due to power outages, as well as snow drifts, the movement of trolleybuses in Leningrad ceased.
The famous poetess Olga Berggolts wrote: “... From Moscow to the Alexander Nevsky Lavra itself, there is a chain of trolleybuses covered with ice, covered with snow, also dead - like people, dead - trolleybuses. One after another, in a string, several dozen. Are standing. And at the Lavra on the tracks there is a chain of trams with broken windows, with snowdrifts on the benches. They are also worth it ... Have we ever traveled in this? Strange! I walked past dead trams and trolleybuses in some other century, in another life.”
On April 15, 1942, passenger tram traffic resumed in Leningrad. Starting at the same time of the trolley bus, the city authorities considered it inappropriate. Trolleybus cars were removed from the streets with the help of revived trams - to conservation sites located in the park on Syzranskaya Street, on Profsoyuz Boulevard (now Konnogvardeisky) and on Red (now Alexander Nevsky) Square. Despite the fact that the contact network was badly damaged, the cars were delivered to the conservation sites on their own: after the necessary inspection, the trolleybus was towed to the tram tracks. One rod (this was a "plus") was connected to the current collector of the tram, the other (this was a "minus") - to its body. They started the movement together, and carefully, slowly, rode side by side. There was no gasoline for towing all the trolleybuses by a towing vehicle in the city.
At the same time, the idea arose to open the movement of trolleybuses on the ice of Lake Ladoga in the winter of 1942-43 in order to use them instead of trucks to deliver food, ammunition to the city, as well as further evacuation of the population. The necessary calculations were carried out, preparations began, but these plans did not receive their implementation. The fact is that the next blockade winter was not as severe as the winter of 1941-42, and already on January 18, 1943, the blockade was broken, and the need to start the movement of trolleybuses along Lake Ladoga disappeared.
Trolleybus traffic was resumed in Leningrad on May 24, 1944 after a 29-month break. Trolleybuses went from Syzranskaya Street to Admiralteisky Prospekt. The first cars to hit the streets were painted red. It is worth noting that the restored network was subjected to a serious modernization: instead of rollers on the trolleybus bars, there were now carbon brushes, or, as they said then, "sliders". They were much cheaper to manufacture, and did not require such frequent replacement.
No matter how beautiful YTBs were, but at some point they began to be considered obsolete. Since 1946, cars from the Tushino Aviation Plant No. 82 - MTB-82, have appeared in the country, which for most residents of our city are known as the “blue trolleybus”, sung by Bulat Okudzhava. The layout and arrangement of the body of the MTB-82 is even more convenient, fairly wide aisles are organized between the sofas, the salon has better both natural and artificial lighting, passenger capacity has increased to 65 people. The design was borrowed from the American General Motors buses of the 40s. In the same period of time, almost simultaneously with the MTB-82, very similar externally ZIS-154 buses appeared in our city, and then the ZIS-155. The rounded shape of the body, the appearance of the sides, and the slope of the driver's windshield were similar.
Blue trolleybus
MTB-82s were produced at the Tushino aircraft plant until 1951. When the company received a large government aviation order, the production of trolleybuses was curtailed. Everything related to the construction of trolleybuses was transferred to the city of Engels, Saratov Region, to the plant named after. Uritsky. At first, the plant produced a slightly improved version of the MTB-82, and then moved on to developing its own machines. The transitional step from the MTB-82 to the “new generation” ZiU-5 trolleybuses will be the experimental TBU-1 trolleybuses, produced in the amount of 9 copies, 8 of which worked in Moscow and 1 in Leningrad. However, a number of shortcomings were found in the design of the TBU-1 trolleybus, which is why it did not go into mass production. Nevertheless, TBU-1 served as a prototype for the creation of a mass model of the ZiU-5 trolleybus, of which about 16 thousand were produced. Unfortunately, today you can see the TBU-1 trolleybus only in the cinema, for example, in the film “Bunny” directed by Leonid Bykov, released in 1964.
Production of the ZiU-5 began at the plant. Uritsky in 1959. There were four modifications of this machine, successively replacing each other on the conveyor. These trolleybuses were much more spacious than the previous ones, their passenger capacity increased to 96 people, and after strengthening the base of the body on the ZiU-5D - up to 120. By the way, at the time of the start of its production, the ZiU-5 had such accelerating dynamics that it could move freely on an equal footing with cars.
1960-80s
In the 60s, trolleybuses, like the rest of the transport in Leningrad, switched to a conductorless service, which meant that the trolleybus ceased to be a luxury transport. A single fare was introduced - 4 kopecks for the entire route, and the number of passengers was no longer fixed. The latter created a serious problem for a trolleybus of this size, since there was no central door in the ZiU-5, and it was difficult to get out of the middle of the cabin during rush hours. There was an experimental modification of the three-door ZiU-5, but it did not go into series, because, firstly, the presence of the middle door significantly weakened the body frame, and secondly, the development of the next model of the plant named after them was already in full swing. Uritsky - ZiU-682 (or ZiU-9). It replaced the ZiU-5 in 1972 to become one of the most famous and numerous trolleybuses in the world. In total, more than 42,000 machines of this family were built, which allowed them to become the most numerous model in the world. They were actively exported to Hungary, Argentina, Greece, Bulgaria, and in some of these countries such machines are successfully operated today. Compared to its predecessor ZiU-5, the ZiU-9 trolleybus has a more spacious and light body, while a third door appears in the center of the cabin, which was so lacking before.
Since 1978, at the Uritsky plant, they began to create articulated trolleybuses of a larger capacity - ZiU-10. The first produced ZiU-683 was tested in Saratov and Engels, where it was assembled, and in 1980 was sent for operation to Moscow.
Since the mid-90s, a number of enterprises in Russia and Belarus began to produce their own modified versions of the ZiU-9. And since the early 2000s, they began to design and manufacture their own low-floor products.
Currently, more than 12,000 trolleybuses from such enterprises as ZAO Trolza, OAO Trans-Alfa, the Bashkir Trolleybus Plant, etc. are used to transport passengers in more than 90 cities of the Russian Federation.
Trolleybus trains
In the second half of the 20th century, trolleybuses with trailers and trolleybus trains began to be used to increase passenger capacity. The first experiments on the creation of trolleybuses with trailers were carried out in the 1960s. The pioneers can be considered MTB-82 trolleybuses, which worked in Tbilisi, Leningrad, Moscow and other cities. In 1966, the first "coupling" based on the MTB-82D was created in Kyiv. In Leningrad, for the purpose of the experiment, two trailers were created on the basis of outdated trolleybuses. All these trains did not work for long due to wear and tear and frequent breakdowns of trolleybus tractors.
A particularly difficult situation in Leningrad developed in the early 1980s, as the city was rapidly built up, new large microdistricts appeared, and there were not enough trolleybus drivers. The leadership of TTU Leningrad was looking for a solution to the problem in different directions, and information came across about the creation of a train of two ZiU-9s in Alma-Ata, the experience of which the Leningrad trolleybus workers turned to. By that time, trams, suburban electric trains and the metro were already operating on the SME, and therefore the introduction of the system in the trolleybus production was not difficult.
In the summer of 1982, an order was issued "On the creation of a trolleybus train", the execution of which was entrusted to the staff of the "Plant for the repair of urban electric transport" (later "Petersburg Tram Mechanical Plant".)
By the end of September 1982, the first prototype of such a train was made, which was operated in the N2 fleet. Until the end of 1982, the plant produced two more such trolleybus trains. Despite the difficulties associated with the lack of operating experience, the number of trains increased. Strict requirements were imposed on the operation of cars: speed limits, the prohibition of reversing. To avoid run-in and ejection, the brakes in the driven vehicle were activated ahead of time.
The city authorities monitored the progress of the creation and operation of trolleybus trains and ordered to increase their number to 100 units. In the 1990s, with the arrival of ZiU-10 articulated vehicles, the number of trains began to decline. They finally left the streets of our city in 2002.
Campaign trolleybus
After the war, trolleybuses were often used to improve traffic culture among drivers and pedestrians. As a rule, such trolleybuses, equipped with a loudspeaker and promotional materials related to traffic rules and safety, came to the most dangerous places in terms of traffic accidents to conduct cultural and educational work with the population there.
January 3rd, 2018
The progenitors of modern trolleybus transport appeared at about the same time in Germany and Saxon Switzerland. In 1882, the German engineer Werner von Siemens opened a trolleybus service between Berlin and its suburbs (Spandau).
At the same time, a 4 km long trolleybus line, designed by Max Schimmann, appeared in the Swiss city of Köningstein.
In the USSR, a passenger trolleybus first appeared on November 15, 1933 in Moscow, on a route that ran along the Leningrad highway. The first such machines in the country were called LK-1 - the abbreviation meant "Lazar Kaganovich". Three plants participated in the creation of these trolleybuses: AMO (now the Likhachev plant), the Yaroslavl Automobile Plant (YaAZ) and the Dynamo plant. By the end of 1934, the number of trolleybuses in Moscow increased to 50, and since 1936 trolleybus routes appeared on the streets of Kyiv, Rostov-on-Don, Tbilisi and Leningrad.
A trolleybus is a trackless mechanical vehicle (mainly passenger, although there are freight and special-purpose trolleybuses) of a contact type with an electric drive, which receives electric current from an external power source (from central power stations) through a two-wire contact network using a current collector and combines the advantages tram and bus.
The word "trolleybus" is borrowed from the English. trolleybus. This English name arose, according to one version, as a combination of Americanism trolley (“tram car” - cf. British streetcar, tram) and English bus (“bus”) - the first trolleybuses were perceived by the public as a “hybrid of a bus and a tram car” ( in early publications in Russian, the trolleybus was described as a "trackless tram"). According to another version, in this combination the word trolley is used in the meaning of "cart" and contains a reference to the current collector in the form of a cart rolling on wires, which was used in the first trolleybuses, which later led to the borrowing of the term "trolley".
The combined rolling stock of electric transport includes trolleybuses, additionally equipped with autonomous running systems on batteries (contact electric buses), supercapacitors, internal combustion engines or fuel cells. A trolleybus that has two traction engines on board - electric and internal combustion - powered separately and having an independent drive to the drive wheels, is called a duobus. If only the electric motor is traction, and the heat engine (internal or external combustion) feeds it through the traction electric generator and does not have direct drive to the drive wheels, then this type is called a thermal electric bus.
Trolleybuses are used primarily in cities, but there are also intercity and suburban trolleybuses. Initially, trolleybuses were considered in the USSR as suburban transport, but later they began to replace trams in areas where the use of the latter is difficult - for example, in the historical centers of cities with narrow streets. In the USSR, more than 10 billion passengers were transported annually by trolleybuses in 178 cities, in 122 of which freight trolleybuses were used in intracity transportation of goods.
The first trolleybus was created in Germany by engineer Werner von Siemens, probably under the influence of the idea of his brother, who lived in England, Dr. Wilhelm Siemens, expressed on May 18, 1881 at the twenty-second meeting of the Royal Scientific Society. Electricity was carried out by an eight-wheeled trolley (Kontaktwagen), rolling along two parallel contact wires. The wires were located quite close to each other, and in strong winds they often overlapped, which led to short circuits. An experimental 540 m (591 yd) trolleybus line opened by Siemens & Halske in the Berlin suburb of Halensee operated from April 29 to June 13, 1882.
In the same year in the United States, the Belgian Charles Van Depoulet patented the "trolley roller" - a current collector in the form of a rod with a roller at the end. A more reliable rod pantograph was invented and introduced in the tram network in 1888 by Frank Spraig. But it was not until 1909 that Max Schiemann installed the Spraig rod current collectors on a trolleybus, and his system, with numerous improvements, has survived to this day.
At the beginning of the 20th century, trolleybuses existed only as an auxiliary option for tram lines, with no prospect of use in busy urban centers, serving a "growing but fragmented population."
In 1902, the magazine "Automobile" published a note on the tests of "an automobile driven by electrical energy received from wires along the path, but not walking on rails, but on an ordinary road." The car was intended for the transport of goods. It happened on March 26, 1902, and this day can be considered the birthday of the domestic trolleybus. The crew part was manufactured by Peter Frese, and the engine and electrical equipment were developed by Count S. I. Shulenberg.
Judging by the descriptions, it was a fifty-pound carriage, working from a line with a voltage of 110 volts and a current of 7 amperes. The carriage was connected to the wires by a cable, and at its end there was a special trolley that slid along the wires when the crew moved. In tests, "the car easily swerved from a straight line, backed up and turned." However, then the idea of development did not receive and the cargo trolley bus was forgotten for about thirty years.
In Russia, engineer V. I. Shubersky proposed a project for the Novorossiysk-Sukhum trolleybus line back in 1904-1905. Despite the deep study of the project, it was never implemented. The first trolleybus line was built only in 1933 in Moscow. The first trolleybuses of the Soviet Union were the LK-1 cars, named after Lazar Kaganovich.
Double-decker trolleybuses were widespread in many European cities. In 1938, double-decker YaTB-3 trolleybuses were operated in Moscow, but the very first winter revealed their shortcomings: snow and ice reduced the controllability of such a heavy vehicle and caused it to sway dangerously. In addition, the height of the trolleybus was limited by the height of the existing contact network, designed for ordinary trolleybuses, and low ceilings created inconvenience for passengers. At the end of 1939, the production of YaTB-3 was discontinued, and no further attempts were made to create double-decker trolleybuses, although the existing copies continued to be used until 1948.
For the conditions of the USSR, as well as in the world, the use of trailers, trolleybus trains, and especially articulated trolleybuses, which appeared by the end of the 1950s and the beginning of the 1960s, turned out to be more productive for increasing passenger capacity. Trailer trolleybuses were soon abandoned in favor of articulated trolleybuses. In the USSR, articulated trolleybuses were produced in clearly insufficient quantities, so trolleybus trains connected via the Vladimir Veklich system became quite widespread. In Kyiv, on June 12, 1966, Vladimir Veklich created his first trolleybus train, which was subsequently successfully used in more than 20 cities of the former USSR. The use of 296 trains in Kyiv alone made it possible to release more than 800 drivers and on a number of routes to realize the carrying capacity of up to 12,000 passengers per hour in one direction.
The peak of the development of trolleybus transportation in the world fell on the period between the world wars and the early post-war period. The trolleybus was perceived as an alternative to the tram. The shortage of road transport (including conventional buses), as well as automotive fuel, in the war and early post-war period further contributed to the increased interest in the trolley bus. These problems lost their acuteness in the 60s, as a result of which the operation of the trolleybus began to become unprofitable, and the trolleybus networks began to close. As a rule, the trolley bus was preserved where it was not possible to replace it with buses - mainly because of the difficult terrain, or where the cost of electricity was low. By the beginning of the 21st century, Australia, Belgium and Finland completely abandoned trolleybuses, and in Austria, Germany, Spain, Italy, Canada, the Netherlands, the USA, France, and Japan, only a few trolleybus systems remained.
In the USSR, however, the trolley bus continued its development. This was primarily due to the relative cheapness of electricity. At the same time, there are a number of purely technical reasons: the mechanical part of a trolleybus is simpler than that of a bus, it does not have a fuel system and a complex cooling system, a gearbox, and does not require pressure lubrication. As a result, the complexity of routine maintenance is reduced, and the need for a number of process fluids - engine oil, antifreeze - is eliminated.
Of the Eastern European states, Poland alone saw a steady decline in the number of trolleybus systems, from 12 in the mid-1970s to three by 1990. At present, despite significant economic difficulties, most trolleybus systems continue to operate in many former socialist countries. The reduction or complete elimination of trolleybus traffic in a number of cities was caused by both economic and purely subjective, political reasons (in the latter case, the trolleybus was often replaced by a tram [source not specified 1871 day] - a modern tram in this case is perceived as a sign of belonging to Europe). At the same time, during the same period, four new trolleybus systems were put into operation in Russia (5 closed), in Ukraine - 2 (and two closed), in the Czech Republic - 1, in Slovakia - 2.
At the end of the 20th - beginning of the 21st century, environmental, economic and other problems caused by mass motorization revived interest in urban electric transport in Western Europe as well. However, most European countries have relied on the tram as more energy efficient and more passenger intensive. Few new trolleybus lines are being built, and the prospects for the development of a trolleybus as a mode of transport remain unclear at the moment.
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