Video of our retired trolleys in service in Argentina
June 3, 2009
Video of our retired trolleys in service in Argentina
June 3, 2009
Our dear friend Jorge Luis Guevara from the transit agency in Mendoza, Argentina, has posted a new video showing our retired trolleys in service. Check out how they reconfigured the interiors at the front of the bus!
Jorge says the trolleys are performing really well and is currently gathering more material to put up online. Here’s Jorge’s blog about Mendoza’s trolleys if you’d like to see more. Thanks to Josh for emailing this video to me too!
The past posts on our retired trolleys and their voyage to Argentina:
- Our retired trolleys make their official debut in Mendoza, Argentina
- Retired trolleys in blue, orange, green, and red!
- Retired trolleys in purple and red!
- Retired trolleys get a new look in Argentina
- Video of the retired trolleybuses on the streets of Mendoza
- Two more photos of the retired trolleys off to Argentina
- The retired trolleys on Argentinian TV!
- Retired trolleys make their way to Mendoza
- The retired trolleys arrive in Chile!
- The trolleys of Mendoza, Argentina
- Update on the retired trolleys sailing to South America
- Retired trolleys set sail for Argentina
The trolley’s seem really happy in Argentina – what I great place to live out their senior years.
Notice the self-serve ticket machine at the front of the bus (hence the reconfigured seats). I’ve seen similar setups in Europe (Bruxelles)
on that note… time to retire the Mk1 cars, it’s like riding in a toaster oven the past week. Mk2 trains are proving their worth with a/c this week!
Oh this brings back so many good memories…. I miss having all those single seats. I don’t think our new artics have as many seats as one of the old buses.
If only people would leave the windows closed so the AC can work properly.
I agree, LEAVE THE FLIPPING WINDOWS CLOSED!
On another note, what does it mean when the “next stop” display on the newer buses shows “MID: 112” instead of the stop name? I find this annoying because I’m not too familiar with the streets around here.
Hey Blake, I’ve asked about the MID 112 thing and here’s the answer:
Hello Jhenifer:
I hope you can understand my rusty English. I live at Mendoza, where your old Flyers came lately and I would like to share some thoughts with all of you there at Vancouver.
I’ve seen more Flyers on service this week, now they are more than our ancient blue German Trolleys (made about 1975 at Solingen factory). They look really very good and they were fixed and tested since last December until April 30 (as you posted before). We look them as “nice” buses, but even this fact, we feel them “a bit strange” because here in Argentina there’s no buses built under USA or Canadian-based designs/shapes. All the buses here has Latin American or European design. I guess that’s the same feeling we had when our old German or before, our SOVIET buses (yes, we bought soviet trolleys -completely new then- in 1984). The fact is the nice Flyers still doesn’t look familiar for us. I guess mendocinian trolley users will be more comfortable with the Flyers when we add them to our urban landscape.
They were modified (as you said in another post) at Marri Colonnese car work-shop, an old producer of buses (on gas-engine chassis) with more than 50 years present in our province.
A little explanation i think is good to know. The new owner of the Flyers is not ‘Ciudad de Mendoza’/City of Mendoza. The owner is ‘Provincia de Mendoza’/Mendoza Province, who has the same status as British Columbia inside Canada.
That’s because Mendoza (the whole city) is in fact a mix of 6 counties, and the trolleys cover services in at least 4 of them. All the public transport at the city (autobuses, taxis, remises and trolley buses, served with public or private services) is under provincial regulations and control.
Last comment: The services are shown at the front of the bus, telling the user what line is covering the unit.
The services are: 1: Parque (the eldest service) / 2:Dorrego (not in use today, it will need some copperline rebuild) / 3:Villa Nueva (just one ring in use, second never built -yet-) / 4:Pellegrini / 5:Godoy Cruz-Las Heras (the longest line right now) / 6: Unimev (not built yet) / 7: U.N.Cuyo (in use). The “5” in the picture you posted was because that bus wasn’t still in service, and shown as “a demo” before entering service.
As I said at the beginning, I hope you can understand me…
Greetings (specially for Jhenifer).
Oh… more to comment :)
The video shows a Flyer covering the “2 – Dorrego” line while it runs across the downtown of Mendoza City (county). That was a very cold sunday morning, and here there’s nobody at the downtown at that time. That’s why perhaps it’s the better time to take a video.
Another tip: there is more female trolley drivers than male trolley drivers. And there is no women driving buses at Mendoza.
Last comment: There are only 3 cities with trolleybus’ services in Argentina. Rosario (1 line with 2 million inhab.); Córdoba (3 lines, with 1.8 million inhab.); and Mendoza (5 lines running, plus 2 deactivated and 1 more planned, with 1.2 million inhab.)
Most of Argentine cities with trolleybuses ended that kind of service about 1965.
Greetings.
So they’ve been in service in Argentina for about 2 years now. It’s great to see how much newer the busses look with a bit of renovation an a new paint job! Still electric- and free of direct in city emissions.