Introducing Metro Vancouver’s newest trolleybus
Introducing Metro Vancouver’s newest trolleybus
The latest addition to our trolleybus fleet has officially arrived and it’s packed with new features designed to make every ride a cool and comfortable journey.
Our new 40-foot trolleybus arrived in June. You may have already seen in your neighbourhood – we are completing essential road and operational tests across the entire trolley network before it enters service.
Refreshed livery
The new trolleybus features a modern blue design with yellow and grey accents and larger windows that let in more light.
Extended battery range
One of the most significant upgrades to our trolleybuses is an onboard battery that recharges while the bus is in motion. This allows our new trolleys to travel up to 20 kilometres off-wire, opening up possibilities for new routes and route changes in the future!
By comparison, our current trolleybuses can only travel a few hundred metres on battery power — just far enough to get around temporary road obstructions.
Red priority seats and stop buttons
Priority seating is now clearly marked in red, making them easier for customers to spot. To request a stop, you won’t find the familiar yellow pull cord anymore. Instead, look for illuminated, Braille-embossed “Stop” buttons throughout the bus that are easy to find and use.
Low floors throughout and an extra back door
Getting around the bus is easier than ever thanks to a low-floor design with step-free boarding. While most buses only have low floors near the doors, our new trolleybus fleet has low floors from front to back, making boarding, exiting, and moving through the bus more convenient for everyone.
An additional back door – a third door on the 40-foot trolleys – allows customers to exit with ease while avoiding congestion.
Improved air quality for a cooler ride
This is our first trolleybus with air conditioning, so customers and operators can enjoy a cool, climate-controlled and comfortable ride. There’s even a dedicated cooling system for bus operators.
Designed with comfort in mind
Our bus operators will receive a thoughtfully designed upgrade to their workstations with a new adjustable dashboard. It includes supportive ergonomic improvements to ensure they can stay comfortable during their shifts.
Additionally, the traditional rear-view and side mirrors are augmented with the latest camera mirror technology. Like a vehicle’s backup camera, it projects live images onto interior displays to improve visibility and reduce blind spots so operators can navigate with ease.
A new era for trolleybuses in Metro Vancouver
This trolleybus will enter service in September 2026 with a commemorative art wrap to celebrate the launch of the new fleet.
As our current fleet of 262 trolleybuses nears the end of their service life, we will be replacing them with 183 standard (40-foot) and 92 articulated (60-foot) trolleys to ensure a more accessible, modern, and reliable transit experience for years to come.
I wish the priority seats were yellow instead of red… it would fit a lot better with TransLink’s brand colours!
That might be part of the reasoning… if it’s yellow people might not consciously notice it as much. Red stands out, which is what it should do in this case.
Few seats that’s not comfortable.
Looks very nice. Air conditioning, nice new livery, and European design, it will blend in nicely on Vancouver streets. It’s also great that Vancouver has kept its trolleybus system and not decommissioned it like the rest of Canada. It’s green technology after all 👏
Yellow would get dirty so fast, with all the bums seating there no pun intended at all.
nice job getting this and i saw it on Fraser and 41 while riding my scooter home but i think your articulated next gen trolley is coming this august but i don’t know when exactly
An art wrap for special occasions is fine, but puleeeze quit covering up those “bigger windows that let more light in” with ads…. some of the newer ads look from the inside like there is vaseline smeared over the outside of the windows!
Almost all trolley buses go through East Hastings. All those brand new buses – which probably costs about 1 million dollars each – will likely be ruined in someway by those trouble-making free riders within the first week or two.
Agree
Get every ounce of life out of the existing buses, which look and seem fine to me, and slowly incorporate the new ones as needed. Stop spending our money like your rich oil Sheiks.
No more free rides for these people who does not have cash or bus card, walk
Let’s hope drivers get lessons on how Not to turn up the heat during cooler months when passengers are all wearing their coats ;)
You want to freeze to death, no common sense. You mean drivers turning up heater during the summer, and air condition or fan during the winter. That’s what is happening.
So only the priority seats are at floor level? The high seats everywhere are way worse than having one section higher!
It compensates for the 100% low floor bus since there needs to be a place to put stuff. It is annoying though.
The third door removes capacity… Imagine what will happen when a horde of schoolchildren get on!
They have to lean now
Standing room only, sometimes people who get paid a lot in office jobs, dont have any common sense. They may be book smart, but isn’t street smart at all literally speaking
Why not just get rid of all the electric trolley buses? What is the operating cost differential when Translink considers the infrastructure maintenance required on existing trolley lines? Trolleys also have less flexibility when they get backed up behind each other. Other than the feel good ideology about the environment and socially, trolleys cost more tax payer money
These new Trolleys can run off wire for 20km so they can manoeuvre around these issues more easily. Trolley buses are easier to maintain compared to regular diesel buses and are less prone to mechanical breakdowns
I am writing to express my concerns regarding the new trolley design and seating arrangement.
So basically it is stating that there are more priority seatings, but less for regular seating. Meaning standing room only like squished altogether. Since there is now a back exit, which would defeat the purpose and become a third entrance for non-paying public.
That is why TransLink is losing money. People who work in office jobs are book smart, but isn’t street smart. No common sense whatsoever.
An additional back door – a third door on the 40-foot trolleys – allows customers to exit with ease while avoiding congestion.
However, this design raises concerns about passenger capacity, seating availability, fare enforcement, and whether the benefits outweigh the possible problems created by having another access point.
I hope TransLink will consider the practical impact on everyday passengers and review whether this design improves the overall transit experience.
Common sense, with Translink basically running 24/7, where would they gas up in Vancouver. That is why they were created to run on trolley lines in 1948, would you like to get stuck in the middle of the night, waiting for another bus to get a replacement
What is the seating capacity of the new vehicles versus the current ones?
Current 40 foot trolley buses have 31 seats. The new ones based on the pictures should have 22 seats with 8 of them being priority seating
Small correction. The new model have 27 seat with 8 of them being priority seating ;)
give us back the stop cords. give us back push bar doors. and please make the paint scheme less weird looking.
It’s sad to see those 2000s trolleys retire but I miss those 1983 trolleys
The middle being toward the back is not ideal, considering there’s a door right at the back as well. But this bus is very pretty!