The Belgrade Trolleybus System

On Friday, I had the opportunity to hold my first-ever professional presentation at the 1st birthday of @Ambasadazaurbanizam. In 20 minutes, I tried to summarise the history of Belgrade's trolleybus network, why it plays a huge role in electric mobility, and how our infrastructure could be significantly enhanced with minimal upgrades. 🚎

Belgrade plans to decommission its entire trolleybus network and replace the fleet with a fleet of electric buses, operated by a private operator. Given the costs that this entails, it’s mind-blowing how such a step was even decided (and the procedure behind it), especially since the new fleet of electric buses could be used to replace lines where diesel buses are currently in operation. ⛽️

To sum up my conclusion: Belgrade needs a modern trolleybus network, like the ones developed in Prague, Budapest, and even Sarajevo. With a fleet that’s suitable for catenary-free operation, so that vehicles can take alternative routes during road closures and lines can be extended, without the need for extra infrastructure. 🔋

Electric buses are simply more expensive, the only use case for them is on low-frequency lines where the economies of scale benefits that trolleybus infrastructure brings to the table do not apply. The answer is always “yes, and…”, we need both solutions. ✅✅

Download the presentation below: