[Busy Bee]

Yeah, I just don't see a situation where an agency builds a ground up OCS trolleybus line again unless, maybe, and that's a very strong maybe, it's in a city where they already have trolleybuses and it's viewed as a modest expansion that shares some existing OCS segments and shares depots, maintenance facilities, etc etc. That said I don't see an American city doing that for a variety of reasons, some mentioned by cirrus. Maybe somewhere in Russia or the former SSR's perhaps. Outside that I just don't see it.

Look, I love a trolleybus as much as any buff. The benefits are obvious regarding acceleration, noise, pollution, etc. The tickle in the belly from an arc at night off the contact wire is just as thrilling as a trolley. The romance associated with fixed guideway trolleybus is something that maybe we can't quite put out fingers on, but it's real just like it is with rail. BUT the realities of rapid advancement in both battery scale, power and range will make any new OCS systems about as unlikely as a return of Blockbuster Video. The real question that remains to be seen probably should be as battery buses became more practical and cheaper, will it lead to removal of fixed OCS guideways in favor of the freedom of route flexibility as regular buses have? Well obviously most reading this will yell I HOPE NOT!!! but who knows.

I think if agencies proposed removal to save on maintenance and asset cost, you'd have people coming out of the woodwork calling for their preservation but also quite a few residents saying they're in favor because "the lines are so ugly" and all that and the other. Who knows? I doubt we'd see something like that anytime soon, and hopefully not ever. There is one other non-transit trackless OCS application that is out there that may still have a future and that is in cargo trucks coming from the ports to inland areas that are responsible for gobs of particulate carbon pollution especially in valleys like Los Angeles. There was talk of this being a solution a few years ago, but I haven't heard anything else about it.