Wellington's first Volvo trolleybus, 1980

The first Volvo trolley bus arrives at the Wellington City Transport depot in March 1980. The buses had Hawke bodywork and were towed from Hawke's workshops in Auckland all the way to Wellington. A dispute arose some months later between Brown Boveri and the Wellington City Council over electrical parts for the buses and made headlines in the media as costs escalated. A total of 68 vehicles eventually entered traffic replacing all the older B.U.T units, some of which had been in traffic since the 1950s. The Volvos lasted until around 2005 when withdrawals began and most were scrapped, but their chassis and running gear were saved to be rebuilt into the new order now in service with GO Wellington. Several examples survive in preservation.  For more, see the book Wellington Transport Memories.  (Wallace Trickett photo)