On 20 Feb 2007 02:17:44 -0800, "Boltar"
wrote:

On Feb 20, 8:36 am, wrote:
While this requires a weight overhead in battery power, it makes them
flexible enough to compete with conventional diesel buses on certain
routes.

I can't see battery power being useful for more than a mile or so and
in hilly areas I suspect its a non starter - literally. The other
problem is that if an operater buys a trolleybus with a diesel
engine , you can guarantee that at some point the bean counters will
say "well hang on , this bus has an engine anyway , why are we paying
to maintain overhead wires when the bus doesn't actually need them?".

Unless battery technology advances sufficiently. See, for instance,
this
http://money.cnn.com/2006/09/15/tech...biz2/index.htm.

I can't find the link but this technology was in one of the Sunday's
recently. Reality or hype? I don't know.

I am a bit concerned abotu the 'charge it in 5 minutes' claims. It
sounds like to have to pump energy into it at quite a rate.