Trolleybuses in Shanghai
Shanghai trolleybus no. H0A-053, on line 14.
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| Operation | |
|---|---|
| Locale | Shanghai, China |
| Open | 15 November 1914 |
| Status | Open |
| Operator(s) | Shanghai Bus Tram Co Ltd (巴士电车) |
| Website | Shanghai Municipal Transport and Port Authority (Chinese) |
The Shanghai trolleybus system is a system of trolleybuses forming part of the public transport network in the city of Shanghai, People's Republic of China. Of more than 300 trolleybus systems in operation worldwide (as of 2011), the Shanghai system is the oldest. The system turned 100 years old in November 2014 and was the first trolleybus system anywhere in the world to reach that milestone.
For many years, the Shanghai system was also one of the largest in the world, once comprising more than 20 routes and more than 900 vehicles, but it currently has about 12 routes and a fleet of fewer than 200 vehicles. Those smaller figures still make it one of the largest systems in operation outside the former Soviet Union countries.
The system's original operator was the Shanghai Electric Construction Company, which also operated trams in what was then the city's International sector. In its early years, the system had two routes, served by seven vehicles.
The first trolleybus service, which began operation on 15 November 1914, was along Fokien Road (now Fujian Road, or Fujian lu); service along Pekin Road (now Beijing Road, or Beijing lu) was introduced in 1915.
As of 1984, and still in 2003, the two original sections were still covered by portions of existing routes 14 and 16, respectively.
In its first 13 days of operation, the system carried 200,000 passengers, and came to be regarded as eminently suited to Shanghai's busy streets. However, the service then had to be temporarily abandoned while the roads on which they operated were strengthened, as the trolleybuses had been pressing down the surface stones with which the roads were paved.
A major expansion approved by the municipal council in 1924 would soon see the network expand from 3.5 km (2.2 mi) to 33.0 km (20.5 mi), and the company purchased 100 new trolleybuses for this expansion.
As of 1985, more than 40 percent of all passenger journeys on the Shanghai City Transport Company's system were made on trolleybuses, even though trolleybuses only made up about 20 percent of the company's fleet (the remainder were diesel buses). There were 19 trolleybus routes at that time, served by 860 articulated vehicles.
In 2004, the system was reported to comprise more than 20 routes, using a fleet of almost 900 vehicles, but subsequently both numbers have significantly declined. The active fleet – the number of vehicles still in regular use – totalled a little more than 200 at the end of 2009. The Shanghai trolleybus system turned 100 years old on 15 November 2014; it was the first trolleybus system anywhere in the world to reach that milestone.
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Wikipedia