The Shanghai trolleybus system is a system of trolleybuses forming part of the public transport network in the city of Shanghai, China. Of more than 300 trolleybus systems in operation worldwide (as of 2011), the Shanghai system is the oldest. The system turned 100 years old in November 2014 and was the first trolleybus system anywhere in the world to reach that milestone.
For many years, the Shanghai system was also one of the largest in the world, once comprising more than 20 routes and more than 900 vehicles in 1994, accounting for 30% of Shanghai's bus ridership. However the system started to decline in scale and service levels in the late 90s and throughout the 2000s with the fleet shrinking to 150 vehicles in 2012. Those smaller figures still make it one of the largest systems in operation outside the former Soviet Union countries. Since then, the trolleybus network is being expanded with a new expanded fleet of 300 trolleybuses for the 12 surviving lines and the introduction of new eBRT lines using trolleybuses in reserved lanes.
History
The system's original operator was the Shanghai Electric Construction Company, which also operated trams in what was then the city's International sector. In its early years, the system had two routes, served by seven vehicles.
The first trolleybus service, which began operation on 15 November 1914, was along Fokien Road (now Fujian Road, or Fujian lu); service along Pekin Road (now Beijing Road, or Beijing lu) was introduced in 1915.
As of 1984, and still in 2003, the two original sections were still covered by portions of existing routes 14 and 16, respectively.
In its first 13 days of operation, the system carried 200,000 passengers, and came to be regarded as eminently suited to Shanghai's busy streets. However, the service then had to be temporarily abandoned while the roads on which they operated were strengthened, as the trolleybuses had been pressing down the surface stones with which the roads were paved.
A major expansion approved by the municipal council in 1924 would soon see the network expand from to , and the company purchased 100 new trolleybuses for this expansion.
As of 1985, more than 40 percent of all passenger journeys on the Shanghai City Transport Company's system were made on trolleybuses, even though trolleybuses only made up about 20 percent of the company's fleet (the remainder were diesel buses). There were 19 trolleybus routes at that time, served by 860 articulated vehicles.
In 1994, the system was reported to comprise more than 20 routes, using a fleet of almost 900 vehicles, but in the subsequent years the route and fleet numbers have been in decline. In the late 90s a citywide road widening scheme demolished the overheads for Lines 9, 12, 16, 18 and 27. Later in the 2000s, Lines 21 and 17 were converted to regular buses in 2005 and 2007 respectively. Lines 11路 (11) and 26路 (26) were converted to super-capacitor buses in 2008 ahead of the Expo 2010. Super-capacitor buses are also electrically powered, but their electrical energy is supplied at charging stations at bus stops and termini (via so-called electric umbrellas), instead of by overhead wires. The energy is then stored between charging stations by onboard super capacitors.
The active fleet – the number of vehicles still in regular use – totaled a little more than 200 at the end of 2009. By 2013 the fleet shrunk to around 150 buses as older trolleybuses were retired and not replaced. However, after 2012, approaching the 100th anniversary of Shanghai trolleybus operations, rising awareness for the need of zero emissions transport and realization of trolleybuses as an icon of Shanghai; the Shanghai traffic department decided revitalize and support the development of trolleybuses. The trolleybus fleet was expanded to 300 with new dual-mode trolleybuses that can run "off-wire" on battery power in 2014. Line 13 was extended and replaced route 922, a regular bus route, using a new fleet of Youngman-Neoplan JNP6120BEV1 dual-mode trolleybuses that run on batteries in sections without overhead wire.