Rocket Talk: How Come the TTC Doesn’t Use Trolleybuses?

By Torontoist

Have questions about the TTC? Rocket Talk is a regular Torontoist column, featuring TTC Chair Adam Giambrone and Director of Communications Brad Ross’s answers to Torontoist readers’ questions. Submit your questions to [email protected]!

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Reader Sean Galbraith asks:

Why doesn’t the City use electric trolley buses instead of streetcars? These at least have the advantage of being able to change lanes (so as to not block two lanes when dropping off passengers).

TTC Chair Adam Giambrone says:

The simple answer is that buses don’t carry enough passengers. The new streetcars that will begin to arrive in 2012 will carry up to four times as many people as a bus.
It’s been said many times that streetcars are iconic to Toronto. Although they frustrate some drivers, people—and particularly transit riders—generally like them. We have spent the last ten years upgrading the track (new track will last twenty-five to thirty years) and the overhead catenary (wires). This investment, combined with the order of 204 new streetcars (the largest streetcar order in the world) worth $1.22 billion means that streetcars are here to stay.
Streetcars were removed from many routes in the 1950s, 60s, and 70s, as the decision-makers of the time determined that the volumes of riders did not justify the needed investment. Streetcars are efficient movers of people. On average each of our new streetcars will replace four to five buses over time (two to three articulated buses if they lasted twenty years, but they only last twelve). Since the largest operating cost is labour, and streetcars require fewer operators per passenger than buses, streetcars save money on operating costs. They also require less maintenance and fuel.
Trolley buses—see the detailed study recently done by the TTC [PDF]—are a little more flexible, but during rush hour when the problem really exists, any transit vehicle faces challenges in mixed traffic. Major bus routes like Finch and Dufferin are prime examples of this. The report referenced above also shows that trolley buses are an expensive way of moving people, both in terms of capital costs (the wires are expensive and the buses themselves are more expensive) as well as maintenance costs.
It’s worth pointing out that the ability to change lanes is not always an overall benefit to road users. Consider for a moment the increase in the number of vehicles required to replace streetcars with buses. There would be over twice as many buses as streetcars, theoretically running no more than a couple of minutes apart during rush hour. Now think about them weaving in and out of the curb lane to pick up passengers. The quality of transit is likely to be compromised, without the conditions for cars necessarily being improved much.
It is expected that new fully electric full size buses that can run for eighteen hours a day will be available commercially in the next ten to fifteen years making the multi hundred million dollar investment for a new trolley bus system difficult to justify. The last trolley bus left Toronto streets in 1993, which I believe was a mistake. That said, I also believe that there are higher transit priorities than rebuilding the trolley bus network at the moment.