I can go on and on with stories of Shanghai's trolley-bus network. The heydays of Shanghai's trolley-bus system was from April 30th, 1990 to February 10th, 1992, with 22 routes and 961 trolley-buses, ALL ARTICULATED!. The routes were 6, 8, 9, 11~28, and Tunnel Bus Line 5 (隧道五线).
Do you know what was Tunnel Bus Line 5? That was the pride of Shanghai's trolley-bus network. Tunnel Bus Line 5 was the world's first trolley-bus route to travel through a cross harbor, under water tunnel. Seattle's downtown bus tunnel and Boston's Silver Line bus tunnel have also supported trolley-buses, but these two tunnels are dedicated bus tunnels where general traffic is not allowed in there, and the vehicles operated in those two tunnels were specially built dual mode trolley-buses which only operated in trolley mode when in the tunnel, as soon as they leave the tunnel, they switch to diesel mode.
Not in the case of Shanghai's Tunnel Bus Line 5 (隧道五线), it was a full conventional trolley-bus route that traveled through a 2261m cross harbor tunnel (East Yan-an Road Tunnel, 延安东路隧道), the tunnel was not a dedicated bus tunnel, it was opened to general traffic.
Tunnel Bus Line 5 was inaugurated on April 30th 1990. I remember this day very vividly since I rode it on the first day. For the first time in Shanghai's history, trolley-bus was brought to Pudong. At one time Shanghai had very ambitious plan to build a huge trolley-bus network in Pudong, they even built a trolley garage, but never for one day had it housed a trolley-bus. On August 31, 1996, Tunnel Bus Line 5 had to be converted to gasoline bus operation because of the construction of Shanghai's East-west cross-town via-duct which was also known as Yan-an Road via-duct, as well as the twinning of a second tube for East Yan-an Road Tunnel.
In the 1990's we lost not just Tunnel Bus Line 5, but also four other trolley routes, including route 27 in 1992, route 9 in 1993, route 12 in 1994, and route 16 in 1997. In the story of route 27, when the Shanghai municipal government decided to uglify the Bund (外滩), Shanghai's famous water-front, they saw trolley wires as an eye sore. On the night of February 10th and wee hours of February 11th, Shanghai transit deployed more than 30 line trucks to tear down 5 km of two way trolley overhead in a single night from the Garden Bridge(白渡桥) and the Bund, the next morning, route 27 trolley became route 37 gasoline bus. The affected trolley routes were not just 27, but also 22 which also traveled on the Garden Bridge and the Bund, and whose terminus was at Shi-liu-pu (16th Pier, 十六铺), Shanghai's then main passenger ship dock. Route 22 had to be truncated on the north side of the Garden Bridge.
It was around 1997 when single compartment rigid trolleys were reintroduced by the now defunct Shanghai Coach Plant (上海客车厂). The switch from articulated trolley to rigid trolley itself was an indication of the decline in ridership, and of course the on slaughter didn't just stop at the end of 1990's, in 2003 we lost 77 years old route 18, and in 2005, route 21. While the loss of routes 9, 12, 16, 18, 21, 27, and Tunnel Bus Line 5 were all road construction/uglification initiated, or government initiated, after 2005, all the losses were enterprise initiated, which were in the cases of routes 11, 17, and 26. Routes 11 and 26 were switched to super capacitor "wi-fi" trolley, and route 17 was switched to diesel operation simply because the company didn't want to operate trolley any more. Other routes that also temporarily lost all trolley operation were 13, 15, 22, 23 simply because Shanghai was so desperately anemic of operable trolleys from 2010 to 2013 (down to 91 operable trolleys in 2013). At one time we thought these routes were never able to recover, luckily with the new Young-MAN trolleys, these four routes have all recovered now. Today, the number of trolley routes in Shanghai sits at 12, and there is talk to convert route 37 back to trolley again because of the government incentives for purchasing and using "rechargeable electric bus", a fancy term for the new trolley-bus. Route 37 will have to cross the Garden Bridge and the Bund on "wi-fi" mode, they are doing feasibility study now.
If you want to learn more about Shanghai's past and current public transit system, please visit:
sh.52bus.com
Do you know what was Tunnel Bus Line 5? That was the pride of Shanghai's trolley-bus network. Tunnel Bus Line 5 was the world's first trolley-bus route to travel through a cross harbor, under water tunnel. Seattle's downtown bus tunnel and Boston's Silver Line bus tunnel have also supported trolley-buses, but these two tunnels are dedicated bus tunnels where general traffic is not allowed in there, and the vehicles operated in those two tunnels were specially built dual mode trolley-buses which only operated in trolley mode when in the tunnel, as soon as they leave the tunnel, they switch to diesel mode.
Not in the case of Shanghai's Tunnel Bus Line 5 (隧道五线), it was a full conventional trolley-bus route that traveled through a 2261m cross harbor tunnel (East Yan-an Road Tunnel, 延安东路隧道), the tunnel was not a dedicated bus tunnel, it was opened to general traffic.
Tunnel Bus Line 5 was inaugurated on April 30th 1990. I remember this day very vividly since I rode it on the first day. For the first time in Shanghai's history, trolley-bus was brought to Pudong. At one time Shanghai had very ambitious plan to build a huge trolley-bus network in Pudong, they even built a trolley garage, but never for one day had it housed a trolley-bus. On August 31, 1996, Tunnel Bus Line 5 had to be converted to gasoline bus operation because of the construction of Shanghai's East-west cross-town via-duct which was also known as Yan-an Road via-duct, as well as the twinning of a second tube for East Yan-an Road Tunnel.
In the 1990's we lost not just Tunnel Bus Line 5, but also four other trolley routes, including route 27 in 1992, route 9 in 1993, route 12 in 1994, and route 16 in 1997. In the story of route 27, when the Shanghai municipal government decided to uglify the Bund (外滩), Shanghai's famous water-front, they saw trolley wires as an eye sore. On the night of February 10th and wee hours of February 11th, Shanghai transit deployed more than 30 line trucks to tear down 5 km of two way trolley overhead in a single night from the Garden Bridge(白渡桥) and the Bund, the next morning, route 27 trolley became route 37 gasoline bus. The affected trolley routes were not just 27, but also 22 which also traveled on the Garden Bridge and the Bund, and whose terminus was at Shi-liu-pu (16th Pier, 十六铺), Shanghai's then main passenger ship dock. Route 22 had to be truncated on the north side of the Garden Bridge.
It was around 1997 when single compartment rigid trolleys were reintroduced by the now defunct Shanghai Coach Plant (上海客车厂). The switch from articulated trolley to rigid trolley itself was an indication of the decline in ridership, and of course the on slaughter didn't just stop at the end of 1990's, in 2003 we lost 77 years old route 18, and in 2005, route 21. While the loss of routes 9, 12, 16, 18, 21, 27, and Tunnel Bus Line 5 were all road construction/uglification initiated, or government initiated, after 2005, all the losses were enterprise initiated, which were in the cases of routes 11, 17, and 26. Routes 11 and 26 were switched to super capacitor "wi-fi" trolley, and route 17 was switched to diesel operation simply because the company didn't want to operate trolley any more. Other routes that also temporarily lost all trolley operation were 13, 15, 22, 23 simply because Shanghai was so desperately anemic of operable trolleys from 2010 to 2013 (down to 91 operable trolleys in 2013). At one time we thought these routes were never able to recover, luckily with the new Young-MAN trolleys, these four routes have all recovered now. Today, the number of trolley routes in Shanghai sits at 12, and there is talk to convert route 37 back to trolley again because of the government incentives for purchasing and using "rechargeable electric bus", a fancy term for the new trolley-bus. Route 37 will have to cross the Garden Bridge and the Bund on "wi-fi" mode, they are doing feasibility study now.
If you want to learn more about Shanghai's past and current public transit system, please visit:
sh.52bus.com
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