Trolleybuses in Shanghai
Encyclopedia
The Shanghai trolleybus
system serves the city of Shanghai
, in the People's Republic of China
. Of more than 300 trolleybus systems in operation worldwide (as of 2011), the Shanghai system is the oldest. For many years, the Shanghai system was also one of the largest in the world, once comprising more than 20 routes and more than 900 vehicles, but it currently has about 12 routes and a fleet of fewer than 200 vehicles. Those smaller figures still make it one of the largest systems in operation outside the former Soviet Union countries
.
s in what was then the city's International sector
. In its early years, the system had two routes, served by seven vehicles. The first trolleybus service, which began operation on 15 November 1914, was along Fokien Road (now Fujian Road, or Fujian lu); service along Pekin Road (now Beijing Road, or Beijing lu) was introduced in 1915. As of 1984, and still in 2003, these sections were still covered by portions of existing routes 14 and 16, respectively. A major expansion approved by the municipal council in 1924 would soon see the network expand from 2.2 mi (3.5 km) to 20.5 mi (33 km), and the company purchased 100 new trolleybuses for this expansion.
As of 1985, more than 40 percent of all passenger journeys on the Shanghai City Transport Company's system were made on trolleybuses, even though trolleybuses only made up about 20 percent of the company's fleet (the remainder were diesel buses). There were 19 trolleybus routes at that time, served by 860 articulated vehicles.
In 2004, the system was reported to comprise more than 20 routes, using a fleet of almost 900 vehicles, but subsequently both numbers have significantly declined. The active fleet – the number of vehicles still in regular use – totalled a little more than 200 at the end of 2009.
Lines 11路 (11 road) and 26路 (26 road) were also operated by trolleybuses until about 2008, after which they were converted to permit them to be operated by super-capacitor buses
. Super-capacitor buses are also electrically powered
, but their electrical energy is supplied at charging station
s at bus stops and termini (via so-called electric umbrellas), instead of by overhead wires. The energy is then stored between charging stations by onboard super capacitors.
and controllers supplied by Dick, Kerr & Co.
. Shipped to China in 1914, they were then fitted with bodies fabricated locally by the Shanghai Electric Construction Company, the system's operator at the time. These trolleybuses had three separate compartments, for first-, second- and third-class passengers. The driver was semi-exposed in an open platform at the front. In 1921, one complete trolleybus was shipped from England. This had the same chassis and propulsion but received a body made by Short Brothers
. In 1922, the company purchased another seven Railless chassis with propulsion by English Electric
(which had taken over Dick, Kerr & Co. in 1919), and fitted them with locally built bodies, to an improved design for which the solitary all-British-built vehicle may have served, in effect, as a pattern. All of these early trolleybuses had solid tyre
s.
In 1924, following the adoption of a major expansion plan, the Shanghai system placed an order for 100 new trolleybuses, which stood for the next 10 years as the single largest order ever placed for trolleybuses. These vehicles had chassis by Associated Equipment Company (AEC) and propulsion equipment from other British companies, and were fitted with Shanghai-built bodies. Approximately 30 more of the same type were purchased later.
Since the 1950s, almost all trolleybuses in the Shanghai system's history have been built in Shanghai itself, mostly by a vehicle manufacturing division – commonly referred to in English transport publications simply as "Shanghai" – of the transport operating company, Shanghai City Transport Company. Production of trolleybuses at the Shanghai factory began in 1951, and the factory has also supplied vehicles to the trolleybus systems in several other Chinese cities. As of 1983, the factory was capable of producing 300 trolleybuses per year.
The first articulated
trolleybuses entered service in 1962 or 1963. These were Shanghai-built model SK663, which gradually replaced many two-axle vehicles and went on to become, at one point, the most numerous model of trolleybus in Shanghai's then-large fleet. The SK663 remained in production until 1969, replaced in 1970 by the SK561G, and later by a succession of newer models of articulated trolleybus. In the early 1980s, more than 800 of the fleet of about 850–900 trolleybuses were articulated, giving Shanghai the distinction of having more articulated trolleybuses than any other city in the world. About 150 of these were the surviving SK663 examples, dating from the 1960s. The last two-axle vehicles were withdrawn in 1983, after which the fleet was 100 percent articulated vehicles, with a total of around 860. Several years later, the operator began purchasing new two-axle trolleybuses, and these gradually replaced all of the articulated vehicles. By at least 2009, when the operating fleet numbered about 280, all vehicles were two-axle.
Since 2001, all new trolleybuses have been air-conditioned
. The last non-air-conditioned units were withdrawn in late 2009. At that time, the fleet size stood at a little over 200 vehicles.
Trolleybus
A trolleybus is an electric bus that draws its electricity from overhead wires using spring-loaded trolley poles. Two wires and poles are required to complete the electrical circuit...
system serves the city of Shanghai
Shanghai
Shanghai is the largest city by population in China and the largest city proper in the world. It is one of the four province-level municipalities in the People's Republic of China, with a total population of over 23 million as of 2010...
, in the People's Republic of China
People's Republic of China
China , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...
. Of more than 300 trolleybus systems in operation worldwide (as of 2011), the Shanghai system is the oldest. For many years, the Shanghai system was also one of the largest in the world, once comprising more than 20 routes and more than 900 vehicles, but it currently has about 12 routes and a fleet of fewer than 200 vehicles. Those smaller figures still make it one of the largest systems in operation outside the former Soviet Union countries
Post-Soviet states
The post-Soviet states, also commonly known as the Former Soviet Union or former Soviet republics, are the 15 independent states that split off from the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in its dissolution in December 1991...
.
History
The system's original operator was the Shanghai Electric Construction Company, which also operated tramTram
A tram is a passenger rail vehicle which runs on tracks along public urban streets and also sometimes on separate rights of way. It may also run between cities and/or towns , and/or partially grade separated even in the cities...
s in what was then the city's International sector
Shanghai International Settlement
The Shanghai International Settlement began originally as a purely British settlement. It was one of the original five treaty ports which were established under the terms of the Treaty of Nanking at the end of the first opium war in the year 1842...
. In its early years, the system had two routes, served by seven vehicles. The first trolleybus service, which began operation on 15 November 1914, was along Fokien Road (now Fujian Road, or Fujian lu); service along Pekin Road (now Beijing Road, or Beijing lu) was introduced in 1915. As of 1984, and still in 2003, these sections were still covered by portions of existing routes 14 and 16, respectively. A major expansion approved by the municipal council in 1924 would soon see the network expand from 2.2 mi (3.5 km) to 20.5 mi (33 km), and the company purchased 100 new trolleybuses for this expansion.
As of 1985, more than 40 percent of all passenger journeys on the Shanghai City Transport Company's system were made on trolleybuses, even though trolleybuses only made up about 20 percent of the company's fleet (the remainder were diesel buses). There were 19 trolleybus routes at that time, served by 860 articulated vehicles.
In 2004, the system was reported to comprise more than 20 routes, using a fleet of almost 900 vehicles, but subsequently both numbers have significantly declined. The active fleet – the number of vehicles still in regular use – totalled a little more than 200 at the end of 2009.
Lines
As at 2011, the system was made up of the following lines:| Line | Route | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 6路 (6 road) | Changbai Road / Tumen Road – Wujin Road / Henan Road | 8.925 km |
| 8路 (8 road) | Songpan Road / Yangshupu Road – City Light Road | 7.655 km |
| 13路 (13 road) | Tilanqiao – Zhongshan Park Metro Station | 12.305 km |
| 14路 (14 road) | Jiangpu / Zhongshan North Road – East Bridge | 9.450 km |
| 15路 (15 road) | Zhejiang Road – Tian Mu Road – Shanghai Stadium Shanghai Stadium The Shanghai Stadium is a multi-purpose stadium in Shanghai, China. It is currently used mostly for football matches.The stadium was built in 1997 when the 8th National Games of the People's Republic of China was held in Shanghai. It can hold about 80,000 people, so it is also called the "80,000... |
10.575 km |
| 19路 (19 road) | Putuo Road – Jiangning Road – North Road, Tangshan | 10.500 km |
| 20路 (20 road) | Jiujiang Road / The Bund The Bund The Bund is a waterfront area in central Shanghai, People's Republic of China. The area centres on a section of Zhongshan Road within the former Shanghai International Settlement, which runs along the western bank of the Huangpu River, facing Pudong, in the eastern part of Huangpu District... – Zhongshan Park |
7.700 km |
| 22路 (22 road) | Changbai Road – Tumen Road – Minhang Road – Changzhi Road | 8.831 km |
| 23路 (23 road) | Tibet Road – Kaohsiung Road – Xin Kang Li | 9.850 km |
| 24路 (24 road) | Bean Street – East Fuxing Road East Fuxing Road The Story of East Fuxing RoadThis is a story about what happens when a new civil system is planted into an old one. It’s better to compare it with another road named Fangband Road which had the similar original situation and became totally different as time passed by.Both the two roads are located... – Longevity Village |
10.184 km |
| 25路 (25 road) | Pingliang Military Road – Zhapu Zhapu Zhapu is a seaport and town in Pinghu, Zhejiang Province, China. It became a busy and rich port when the Qing Dynasty authorized it as the only port for trade to Japan and Korea. The British captured Zhapu on 18 May 1842 during the First Opium War.... – North Suzhou Road |
10.860 km |
| 28路 (28 road) | Baotou Road – Nen River Road – Tilanqiao | 11.875 km |
Lines 11路 (11 road) and 26路 (26 road) were also operated by trolleybuses until about 2008, after which they were converted to permit them to be operated by super-capacitor buses
Capa vehicle
A capa vehicle is a traction vehicle that uses supercapacitors to store electricity. the best ultracapacitors can only store about 5% of the energy that lithium-ion rechargeable batteries can, limiting them to a couple of miles per charge. This makes them ineffective as a general energy storage...
. Super-capacitor buses are also electrically powered
Electric bus
An electric bus is a bus powered by electricity.There are two main electric bus categories:* Non-autonomous electric buses:**The trolleybus is a type of electric bus powered by two overhead electric wires, with electricity being drawn from one wire and returned via the other wire, using two...
, but their electrical energy is supplied at charging station
Charging station
An electric vehicle charging station, also called EV charging station, electric recharging point, charging point and EVSE , is an element in an infrastructure that supplies electric energy for the recharging of electric vehicles, plug-in hybrid electric-gasoline vehicles) or semi-static and mobile...
s at bus stops and termini (via so-called electric umbrellas), instead of by overhead wires. The energy is then stored between charging stations by onboard super capacitors.
Fleet
The initial, two-route system that opened in 1914–15 used a fleet of seven trolleybuses. These used chassis built by Railless Electric Traction, in England, and fitted with motorsTraction motor
Traction motor refers to an electric motor providing the primary rotational torque of a machine, usually for conversion into linear motion ....
and controllers supplied by Dick, Kerr & Co.
Dick, Kerr & Co.
Dick, Kerr and Company was a locomotive and tramcar manufacturer based in Kilmarnock, Scotland and Preston, England.-Early history:Having previously been known as W.B.Dick and Company the company had built all kinds of tramway equipment and rolling stock. From 1883 the company joined with John Kerr...
. Shipped to China in 1914, they were then fitted with bodies fabricated locally by the Shanghai Electric Construction Company, the system's operator at the time. These trolleybuses had three separate compartments, for first-, second- and third-class passengers. The driver was semi-exposed in an open platform at the front. In 1921, one complete trolleybus was shipped from England. This had the same chassis and propulsion but received a body made by Short Brothers
Short Brothers
Short Brothers plc is a British aerospace company, usually referred to simply as Shorts, that is now based in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Founded in 1908, Shorts was the first company in the world to make production aircraft and was a manufacturer of flying boats during the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s...
. In 1922, the company purchased another seven Railless chassis with propulsion by English Electric
English Electric
English Electric was a British industrial manufacturer. Founded in 1918, it initially specialised in industrial electric motors and transformers...
(which had taken over Dick, Kerr & Co. in 1919), and fitted them with locally built bodies, to an improved design for which the solitary all-British-built vehicle may have served, in effect, as a pattern. All of these early trolleybuses had solid tyre
Tyre
Tyre is a city in the South Governorate of Lebanon. There were approximately 117,000 inhabitants in 2003, however, the government of Lebanon has released only rough estimates of population numbers since 1932, so an accurate statistical accounting is not possible...
s.
In 1924, following the adoption of a major expansion plan, the Shanghai system placed an order for 100 new trolleybuses, which stood for the next 10 years as the single largest order ever placed for trolleybuses. These vehicles had chassis by Associated Equipment Company (AEC) and propulsion equipment from other British companies, and were fitted with Shanghai-built bodies. Approximately 30 more of the same type were purchased later.
Since the 1950s, almost all trolleybuses in the Shanghai system's history have been built in Shanghai itself, mostly by a vehicle manufacturing division – commonly referred to in English transport publications simply as "Shanghai" – of the transport operating company, Shanghai City Transport Company. Production of trolleybuses at the Shanghai factory began in 1951, and the factory has also supplied vehicles to the trolleybus systems in several other Chinese cities. As of 1983, the factory was capable of producing 300 trolleybuses per year.
The first articulated
Articulated bus
An articulated bus is an articulated vehicle used in public transportation. It is usually a single-deck design, and comprises two rigid sections linked by a pivoting joint...
trolleybuses entered service in 1962 or 1963. These were Shanghai-built model SK663, which gradually replaced many two-axle vehicles and went on to become, at one point, the most numerous model of trolleybus in Shanghai's then-large fleet. The SK663 remained in production until 1969, replaced in 1970 by the SK561G, and later by a succession of newer models of articulated trolleybus. In the early 1980s, more than 800 of the fleet of about 850–900 trolleybuses were articulated, giving Shanghai the distinction of having more articulated trolleybuses than any other city in the world. About 150 of these were the surviving SK663 examples, dating from the 1960s. The last two-axle vehicles were withdrawn in 1983, after which the fleet was 100 percent articulated vehicles, with a total of around 860. Several years later, the operator began purchasing new two-axle trolleybuses, and these gradually replaced all of the articulated vehicles. By at least 2009, when the operating fleet numbered about 280, all vehicles were two-axle.
Since 2001, all new trolleybuses have been air-conditioned
Air conditioning
An air conditioner is a home appliance, system, or mechanism designed to dehumidify and extract heat from an area. The cooling is done using a simple refrigeration cycle...
. The last non-air-conditioned units were withdrawn in late 2009. At that time, the fleet size stood at a little over 200 vehicles.
See also
- List of trolleybus systems
- Public transport in ShanghaiPublic transport in ShanghaiShanghai has an extensive public transport system, largely based on buses, trolley buses, taxis, and a rapidly expanding metro system. All of these public transport tools can be accessed using the Shanghai Public Transportation Card, which uses radio frequencies so the card does not have to...
- Shanghai BusShanghai BusShanghai has more than 1000 formal bus lines , served by more than 10 bus companies. In the past, Bashi, Dazhong, Guanzhong and Qiangsheng were the four largest; around 2009 they merged to become Bashi Bus Companies No.1-4...
- Shanghai MetroShanghai MetroThe Shanghai Metro is the urban rapid transit system of China's largest city, Shanghai. The system incorporates both subway and light rail lines. It opened in 1995, making Shanghai the third city in Mainland China, after Beijing and Tianjin, to have a rapid transit system...