Trolley Omnibuses

TROLLEY OMNIBUSES.

A Novelty In City Street Vehicles to Be Tried In England.

A bill is before the English parliament authorizlng the introduction of trolley omnibuses in Gloucestershire.

The trolley omnibus, while free to maneuver over the road like an ordinary bus, derives its current from overhead wires like a tram car, though, unlike the latter, it has no special track. Services are to be found between Samois and Fontainebleu, in France; between Koenigstein and Koenigsbrunn, in the valley of the Biela, and in other places, but it has never been tried in the United Kingdom. Mr. A. A. Campbell Swinton, the engineer of the company, says in the London Chronicle:

"What we propose to do is to put up poles carrying two trolley wires similar to those used for tramway purposes. The cost of the overhead equipment will be the same as in the case of tramways. What will be saved will be the cost of the permanent way, which is always a very large item."

While an ordinary electric tramway costs about $35,000 a mile to lay, an overhead trolley motor car system would cost something like $5,000 a mile. Where a vast amount of traffic has to be dealt with an electric tramway or light railway would have to be laid, but in country districts and among scattered populations the electric trolley bus should find a wide sphere of usefulness.