TAN - Trolleybus wires being dismantled in Greece

[Geoffrey Hansen]

A bit of disappointing news about trolleybuses disappearing in Greece. 

Has anyone here been on the Greek trolleybuses? 

https://greekreporter.com/2025/12/08/greece-begins-dismantling-trolleybus-cables/

Regards Geoffrey 

[pn1]

My partner and I spent a (hot) week in Athens in August. The trolleybus system reminded me of Brisbane in its later days: very much on the decline. I was pleasantly surprised at the size of the system; again possibly similar to Brisbane at its maximum extent. The demise pf Athens trolleybuses was announced some time ago. We also rode the Athens tram system. Interesting but not overly impressive. 

Regards 

Paul (currently travelling in Italy)

p...@bigpond.com

On 9 Dec 2025, at 05:44, Geoffrey Hansen <gnhan...@gmail.com> wrote:



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[TP]

It would be interesting to know what professional (as opposed to political) advice they had on this, because if they are complaining about higher costs of a trolleybus system, then they're going to be in for an unpleasant surprise with the costs of a battery bus system. They have plenty of European partners to advise them on this and I'm surprised at the outcome. The clue might be the reference to the aesthetics of the OHW, which makes it a political matter and one has to ask how strongly was the case for an IMC system with a reduction in the amount of OHW put forward?

The case for modern IMC trolleybus systems is pretty-well summarised here:

https://cleantechnica.com/2025/05/14/why-modern-cities-are-embracing-trolleybuses-again/

(The information on the Prague system is outdated as the city is replacing its entire diesel bus system with IMC trolleybuses, not just the airport route.)

The pattern that's evolving in Europe is that battery buses are being used on less busy routes, while the major, very busy routes are serviced by trams, trolleybuses and/or metro.  Battery buses in Europe typically have quite a low range and rely on frequent top-up charging in order to avoid increased weight due to batteries and thus to be able to carry more passengers. Top-up charging also involves downtime, which is something detrimental to a busy system.

Tony P