Quote:
Originally Posted by jmecklenborg
Dayton, OH has about 10 trolleybus lines. There is some talk of buying new buses that will charge their batteries while using the existing overhead wire, then run on battery power beyond the ends of each line.
A traditional trolleybus has the advantage of less weight, but I've never been able to find how much the bus batteries weigh.
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The batteries are pretty heavy. I think the trolleybus though have more upfront capital costs the maintenance and operations cost are far cheaper than the batteries because the batteries weight and size will limit per unit bus capacity.
A 40' CNG bus that has to have a max capacity of 80 will be reduced to 60 for a battery electric bus because the batteries weight goes against the Maximum Gross Vehicle Weight and limits the range of the vehicle. So agencies will need to run more buses for the same capacity which costs more because they need more buses and operators on the road.