>>1760841I already explained, Winterthur made a feasibility study on converting diesel lines to battery, or to hybrid trolley (using partly existing wires, with some new wires), abd it came out that trolley is significantly cheaper.
Yes, this is a case where there's already wires in place, but still some new wires were considered, so it goes to show that battery buses are actually much more expensive overall than the general perception of it. Apart from the buses themselves which are more expensive you need to change huge battery packs regularly, you need a fast charging system which, although it's just at onebor two points along the line, is much more complex than the trolleys and wires, it needs the coubterpart on the bus, it needs an electrical system for very high loads, and so on.
I'm not saying that starting from scratch trolleybuses are cheaper, but I am saying that the difference is really not that significant, while having its own advantages like
>wire infrastructure can be used by several lines on a trunk section, while chargers are usually located at the end of the line so you need more of them>fast chargers still need1 time for a full recharge, so if the bus is delayed it can't cut short the end of line layover>afaik there are no biarticulated battery buses, there will be eventually but the battery issue grows with size, ie battery replacement is more expensive while the trolley has no equivalent added cost (just buying the bus, energy and maintenance)>battery buses often use proprietary technology for charging, so you're bound to one manufacturerAnd if there are wires in place, then the switch to battery buses definitely makes no sense.
