Strictly speaking, Wellington's first trolley bus was a single 20 kW one from 1924 which ran along the Hutt Road for a while. However, the main fleet of trolley buses began in 1949 with the arrival of 10 Crossley/Metropolitan Vickers 78 kW examples (another 4 of this model also went to New Plymouth). The first route they were used on was was Oriental Bay where they shared the road with trams for 15 months. After this they slowly took over from trams on all routes. Wellington is now the only New Zealand city which uses them, enhancing its clean-green image.
Those who want more information with nice pictures of Wellington trolley buses (along with trams and trains) will find them in the transpress book Wellington Transport Memories available in our shop, which features a cover painting by Wallace Trickett who also painted this montage.
Hello im just browsing in memory of my father who was a bus driver for the Wellington City Council...as it was in those days and just recollecting the days of the big Reds,Kope his name was and as kids he used to take us for rides on the buses in the school holidays. They were the best days and as a result we remember the different type of buses dad used to be assigned to on his various shifts which in turn we developed our favourate which in my case was the trolley bus which is pictured in the 60th anniversary poster,the one with the curved destination window above the windscreen.We loved all the buses of that era because of our father who was a driver in the 60's 70's 80's and 90's until he past away in 2008 suddenly so please keep the trolley buses going for the envouroment as well as the people,we had good memories of the diesel buses too...thank you SLeota one of his sons.
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