Zachary's Account of Shanghai Trolley-bus

[Ode of Bund]

I stepped on the soil of my home town 24 hours behind schedule. On my day of departure, Friday February 9th, we battled the sub-freezing northern Alberta temperature and set out for the long awaited journey at 4:00 in the morning, but things did not go well as planned. After deicing, an announcement was made that the on board computer was not able to communicate with the left engine of this Embraer 90 plane that we were on, so she was towed back into the terminal. After an hour long of repairing which included the complete shut down of on board computer and rebooting, the Embraer was pushed back onto the tarmac for deicing again. Soon we took off from Edmonton International Airport, but only to be air-borne for half an hour before another announcement was made that the initial problem was not fully resolved and the pilot had no choice but to return to Edmonton. Our luggage remained on board upon landing in Edmonton, but all passengers had to clear the air-plane with no certainty of whether we could fly again on that day. Time was slowly casting away upon reading, finally by 2:00 in the afternoon, the CJR finally rid of all her problems, and we were called upon to fly again. After deicing for the third time, we were on our way to Vancouver seven hours behind schedule, the China bound AC flight 37 from Vancouver to Shanghai that day took off long before I could make it. Air Canada recognized its own fault and dispatched two agents at YVR to greet us, they immediately rebooked us for flight 37 on the next day, a night of accomodation at Sutton Place Richmond with supper and breakfast, and a $75 gift card for each person. Mother was still a bit furious, but I remained cool by telling her that things have improved a great deal from the old days, sixteen years ago when we first immigrated to Canada, Air Canada didn't even have a China route at all, only Air China flew a weekly schedule, imagine ourselves in that kind of predicament, and now a day of set back would not affect the rest of our journey. Subsequent development proved my points, aside from the bit of inconvenience of carrying our big pieces of luggage from the airport to the hotel and back to the airport the next day, an extra relay at Vancouver was useful for the fatigued bodies. We got up at 4:00 on Friday morning, should we not missing the Shanghai bound flight, it would be another seemingly endless torment inside the cramped fuselage of a B767. Sometimes being stranded by a faulty airplane wasn't so bad after all, that night I even ventured out into the darkness of my favourite city and ride my favourite trolley, and we all slept like a pig.

Cruising along the west coast of British Columbia, Aleutian islands of southwest Alaska, and crossing the international date line, we landed in Shanghai on Sunday afternoon, February 11 at 16:30.

(story to be continued)

[Ode of Bund]

Initially I planned a grand trolley tour for myself on the second day following my arrival, but after wasting much of the day at a local Bank of China trying to cash a money order that we purchased prior to the trip, I had to postpone the plan altogether, fortunately l still managed to do a largely scaled down exploration on the third day to get a taste into the deterioating situation of Shanghai trolley-bus system.

About a year ago, upon reading of a short transcript by a British traveller who casted route 17 as the most charming trolley-bus route in Shanghai for the variety of landscapes it encompassed, it had become the first and formost important dream travel route ever since then. Five years ago in 2002, during my first trip back to Shanghai, route 17 left me with the unchanged impression from a decade ago before emigrating to Canada, this was not a route that I rode frequently, but it never had a moment of silence at times when I did have the use of it. Even though many trolley routes in 2002 had a much greater relief compare to the early 90s, route 17 remained the most heavily utlized trolley route. I avoided route 17 five years ago because of the overcrowding, but totally unrealizing the fun, joy, and beautiful scenery associated with, as the British traveler exquistely wrote, the "variety of landscapes" and variance among people with different income level, had to offer. My curiosity of route 17 was reignited since then.

In June of 2003, to improve the service level under Shanghai's North-South Axis Via-duct, the then second longest trolley route, route 17 was further prolonged by an extension into the foot of the newly built Lupu Bridged which spanned across the River Huangpu, and by January 2005, with the permanent dieselization of route 21, route 17 became the longest trolley route.

But my abacus of calculated manoeuvre was totally smashed. After waiting at the foot of Lupu Bridge for half an hour, a service personnel informed me that all crippling non airconditioned, 1998 model SK5105 trolley coaches had been withdrawn after the last run on Saturday, February 10th, just three days prior to my attempt to have the first trolley ride in Shanghai, and all services on route 17 by then, was carried out by air-conditioned 10m Sunwin diesel coaches nick named SOD.

[Ode of Bund]

You can imagine my anger and frustration at that moment, but unable to change anything, I hopped on a baby Sunwin (the SOD) and started calling one of my most familiar chatting buddies, Mr. Song Wenchao, Wenchao had in fact warned me of the potential elimination of trolleys on route 17, he even told me that it could happen right around the time when I was in Shanghai and that I might not be able to catch the last ride, and now his prophecy had come true. On the phone Wenchao confirmed the bad news, and expressed his sympathy, I was sitting not far behind the front door, so the female driver also overheard my question to Wenchao and cut into our conversation by admitting that route 17 was no longer a trolley route.

The MTV was tuned into its loudest pitch with continuous playing of new years greeting, diesel engine was roaring at the back of the bus, more and more passengers were picked up and the bus became increasingly crowded. Had I use my heart more carefully even before reading that transcript, I should be able to uncover the beauty of route 17 myself much earlier, in an era when Shanghai was ambitiously trying to regain the former glory as the financial magnet of the Orient, neighborhoods served by route 17 was quite a representative of a huge palimpsest caught in the middle of the antagonizing forces between the eagerness of modernization and the desire to preserve the tradition.

Several days later, on the eve of Chinese New Year, as I was traveling on a train from Hangzhou back to Shanghai, I received another call from Wenchao delivering a slightly good news. The dieselization of route 17 without any sounding reason had provoked much public outcry such that several state run media began to question the legitimacy of such a flamboyant action that destroyed a classic trolley line in one night, a trolley line who witnessed almost 80 years of history. Surrendering to the pressure and facing a fine for alteration of operating vehicle without permission, the operator of route 17, Ba-shi Xin Xin (a subsidiary of Bashi Group, "bashi" is the vocal translation of bus) reallocated six crippled, near retiring age, 1998 model SK5105, non air-conditioned trolley coaches back onto route 17. Wenchao told me that I had to be extremely patient to get one, but one day as I walked off a route 13 trolley at a stop which was also shared by three other trolley routes, there I spotted one following. Finally I got my ride on a route 17 trolley, quite unexpectedly and without any waiting at all. Even though that trolley was vibrating enormously as it could not even picked up much speed, and felt like going for total disintergration at any time, I was very pleased and contended. Nonetheless, the dieselization also had its supporters, perhaps the debate of whether route 17 should be dieselized or continue to use trolley itself is a reflection of such struggle between old and new.

[M. Parsons]

You can imagine my anger and frustration at that moment, but unable to change anything, I hopped on a baby Sunwin (the SOD) and started calling one of my most familiar chatting buddies, Mr. Song Wenchao, Wenchao had in fact warmed me of the potential elimination of trolleys on route 17, he even told me that it could happen right around the time when I was in Shanghai and that I might not be able to catch the last ride, and now his prophecy had come true. On the phone Wenchao confirmed the bad news with me, and expressed his deep sympathy, I was sitting not far behind the front door, so the female driver also overheard my question to Wenchao and cut into our conversation by admitting that route 17 was no longer a trolley route. The on board television was tuned into its loudest pitch with continuous playing of new years greeting, diesel engines were roaring at the back of the bus, more and more passengers got on board and the bus became increasingly crowded. Outside the bus window,

And........ You left us hanging!!!!

[Ode of Bund]

And........ You left us hanging!!!!

Sit back, relax, and stop whining. There were a lot of trolleys, but I had to recollect my memory in the midst of a busy month, I haven't had a complete weekend since coming back

[Ode of Bund]

But I was determined not to let the initial set back lower my spirit of riding more trolleys, after all Shanghai still had 15 trolley routes and almost 400 rolling stock in good operable condition, more than any trolley-bus system in North America, in fact new trolleys have been put on road just before my arrival, supply is still plentiful. After leaving the 17 baby Sunwin at Fuzhou Road that day, I first wandered into a large book store.

Stretching from Renmin (Peoples's) Square in the heart of downtown Shanghai to the Bund, Fuzhou (also spelled as Fuchow) Road is the book street, no matter what your profession or your education level is, no matter what your interest or hobby is, Fuchow Road is definitely a place of interest to visiti in Shanghai. Its west end at People's Square intersected the north south throughfare, the Tibet Road, traditionally this was the place where three trolley routes diverted, route 18 continued north along the Tibet Road, route 17 turned east onto Fuchow Road, and route 23 turned west onto Wusheng Road and penetrated deeply into the Jing'an District. Today not even a single trace of trolley-bus could be found at this hustle and bustle location anymore. In 2003, a so called face-lifting renovation forced removal of trolley overhead over a long stretch of the Tibet Road, and systematically purged trolleys out of the People's Square area. As a result, route 18 was dieselized on June 15th, and route 17 and 23 had to diverge much earlier at Jin'ling Road, about 500 meters south of Fuchow Road. From the very beginning transit service, Fuchow Road had never heard the jingling chimes of the English trams, and like many busy commercial arteries, after almost 80 years of faithful service, Fuchow Road forever lost her unique blending charm of literary graciousness and quite humming of trolleys.

The stop where I got off the bus was close to the east end of Fuchow Road, the Bund, the famous waterfront where many colonial builings from 1920s still stand sternly gazing at white waves of River Huangpu. After grabbing some books, I walked to the terminus of route 20, the name of the stop was called Bund at Jiu'jiang Road. Being the most exposed trolley route in Shanghai for her service along China's most prestigious commercial shopping street, the Nangjing (also spelled as Nanking) Road, had definitely earned route 20 a lot of advantages over her counter parts. From the first generation of articulated trolley of model SK663 with round body in the 1960s by the then Shanghai Coach Plant, to the much more rectangularish SK561 model with resistor curent control, and then chopper control, to SK5115, the only model with 11.5m body, 8 ton chassis and power steering, and finally the Sunwin air-conditioned trolley, route 20 lead the fashion of Shanghai's trolley fleet. Rumors even had that route 20 survived the culprit to dieselize it in 2006 in a so called "power line from heaven to hell" project to "enlighten" the skyline of Nangjing Road, trolley overhead was spared this time. Even though, there were diesels mixed in the operation, getting a trolley on route 20 was not a difficult task. Since the east stretch of Nanjing Road has been converted into a pedestrian walking zone in 1999, after leaving the Bund, trolleys proceeded west along Jiu'jiang Road which was one block south of Nan'jing Road, at their most narrow point of seperation, they were less than 30 meters apart from each other. After crossing the Tibet Road, Jiu'jiang Road merged into Nanjing Road, and route 20 returned to her original route. Today with the competition from both underground and above ground, route 20 lost a significant portion of her ridership from the late 1980s and early 1990s, this was also a phenomenon which I noticed after riding many buses along many different corridors. The declining ridership was not only affecting trolley routes but also diesels as well, such was reflected in that many trunk routes (or at least in my impression, they were trunk routes) had greatly depleted their customer resources along the courses that they traditional strong hold, to the newly emerged competing routes. In the end, everybody became the loser of such wasteful competition, public transit was geared toward profit making, and the purpose of being on the road was to generate as much revenue as possible by grabbing as many would be consumers as possible, transit fans called such phenomenon as "hauling rice" off the road.

But after all Shanghai was still home to more than 15 million residents, a much reduced head counts still far exceeded even the busiest bus route by Edmonton standard. Take route 20 for example, the reduction was from crushing load 90% of the time on an exclusive 14m articulated fleet at 2~3 minute interval of the early 1990s, to standing load 85% of the time on 10m airconditioned fleet at 6~7 minute interval of today.

[Ode of Bund]

Route 20 also had more places where drivers had to keep watchful eyes on the overhead, lack of overall planing had led to frequent two way to one way, and one way back to two way traffic arrangement, this kept power crew busy. At least two locations along Nanjing Road, the intersections with Xi'Kang Road and Tong'ren Road, where traditionally had clean air space, were now open to trolley traffic, so switches and cross overs had to be installed to accomodate such rearrangement. In some other areas of the city, ironically, in order to eliminate visual pollution on one street, another street had to be made very messy to accomodate rerouted trolleys. A typical example was the intersection of He'nan Road and Tiantong Road, where a pair of north-south, a single set of westbound, a pair of north to east turning, a pair of south to east turning, and a single set of north to west turning wires, were stitched together, making it a horrendous K&M spider web where drivers had to negotiate extremely carefully.

Except route 8, every trolley route had some what mixed diesel operation, in some cases diesel operation even surpassed trolleys. Those diesels were mainly baby Sunwins or Daewoo buses about the same size as trolley, i.e. 10m to fit into the narrow streets that many trolley routes still snake through. The claim of deploying diesels on trolley routes was to improve service reliability, and to ensure service continuity during power outages and wire break downs, but the underlying reason was diesels were flexible and generally speedier than trolleys and could "haul" more "rice" for the bus company.

Besides route 17, another route badly infested with diesels was the 15, it inherited most of the air-conditioned trolley coaches from route 17 last year, along with some of the 11 meter SK5115 reallocated from route 20, team route 15 still had somewhere between 20 to 25 trolleys, this would be 2/3 of the entire daily requirement of trolley in Edmonton. However only during morning and afternoon peak hours could see most of them on the road to give a equally balanced mix of trolley and diesel, at any other hours, the ratio between diesel and trolley is 3:1. On the morning of the second day of the Chinese New Year, upon arrival at Shanghai Stadium, the south west terminus of route 15, I was delighted to see several air-conditioned trolleys in the queue, thinking it wasn't too bad after the dissapointing experience with route 17. I took some pictures, and then expentantly waited for the next trolley to pull in after the departure of the first diesel, only to find out that trolley was on her way to the garage and would only take passengers up to a mid-point stop at Jing'an Monastary. Mid-point was better than no riding at all, thinking that I could transfer to the next trolley which was right behind, I hopped on the first one. I saw no trolley going the opposite direction on my way until almost reaching that mid-point where I supposed to leave, and the trolley that followed behind was also garage bound who refused to take any more cutomers at the same mid-point stop. Feeling I could waste more time chasing the trolley, I decisively walked away from route 15 and seeked other options.

[Ode of Bund]

The best trolley performance was in the north east part of the city, the Yang'pu District, the traditional heartland of textile industry and ship yards, and the sphere of influence of trolley division 2. Although each route still had mixed diesel operation, the proportion was much less than that of routes 17 and 15.

Among the 80 or so newest trolleys by Hangzhou Changjiang Coach, 30 units were delivered in January. These so called HOA trolley, were allocated onto all routes serving the greater Yang'pu, they included routes 6, 8, 14, 19, 22, 28, about eight units were assigned to route 23 which served central business area. Compared to Sunwin trolleys which Shanghai traditionally so acclaimed to, HOA had a much more smooth and comfortable riding quality, although electric motor remained at rated 60kW, the acceleration was faster, and the oscillation was much less detectable than Sunwin when speed reached 40km/hr.

Of course no trip is complete without a riding on Shanghai's newest inovation, the super capacitor bus. The super capacitor buses were only limited to the clock-wise circle of route 11, I rode half a circle in one occassion and had a brief disscussion to the female driver. I got on the bus at Laoximen (Old West Gate) where the dispatch office was located, and also the layover stop when one cycle was completed, so at the time of boarding, bows were raised for much longer than at any other intermediate charging stops in

hope that the capacitors were fully charged. There were 7 charging stations along the 5.5 km loop, but buses do not get to charge at any single one of them. The circular course of route 11 encompassed the oldest historic relics and tourist attractions of Shanghai, namely the Yu Garden, thus many tour buses inadvertently invaded space needed by super caps to recharge the capacitors, and forcing them to abandon the recharging attempt at all. Buses in Shanghai did not enforce strict curb side boarding as road conditions were perplexing enough for drivers to do so, but for super capacitor buses, in order for recharging to be performed, the bus must be parked very close to the curb, there were some kind of sensors that can only be

triggered when the bus was almost glued to the sidewalk. From a passenger's perspective, the electric motor was a humming charm, but did not produce as much tremor as Sunwin trolleys usually did when speed was in excess of 30km/hr, the acceleration however was not as fast as a trolley. The biggest

problem was going back to garage since no recharging station was available, technically super caps could recharge from trolley overhead, but since trolley overhead were suspended in the middle of the road, recharging would also require the bus to stop in the middle of the road, blocking all other traffic. Adding to the complexity was that trolley overhead were higher than contact bars grid of recharging station so that bows may not reach even when fully stretched. So drivers had to make sure capacitors were fully charged

before heading to garage, and be extremely conservative on the way by shutting down the air-conditioner and depressing power pedal as little as possible.

[Ode of Bund]

All in all, Shanghai still possesses a charming trolley-bus system which has a

rich deposit of history that recorded the exploitation and expansion of this

legendary sin city of the Orient. No matter what kind of hardship was

imflicted upon this ravishing yet fortified metropolis, trolley-bus had

never succumbed to wars, revolutions, regime changes, political turmoils,

and natural disasters in her century long faithful service. And in the

endless event of road constructions and traffic rearrangement, the power

crew is always in the front line to realign, relocate, and eract new

overhead contact systems to ensure disruption free trolley service on the

following morning. However this charming system may not last longer if no

one challenges the negative attitude, lack of determination and economic

incentives, toward the successful operation of the system.

Privatization of the entire transit system and the abandoment of monthly bus passes in early

1990s effectively cut off the massive financial subsidies from the municipal

government, forcing a once uniformly controled industry to disintergrate

into many smaller sectors that begin to take on each other. Bus service is

no longer simply a social welfare system, days of cheap electricity and fuel

are long gone, revenue generating becomes by far the most important goal for

the existence and sustainability of any transit operators, "rice hauling" is

therfore a phenomenon that emerges under such a historical moment.

In 2002, when the three trolley divisions merged into a single entity as Shanghai Bashi Trolley-bus under the flagship of Shanghai Bashi (Bus) Group Inc., and all trolley routes conjoined under a unified stronghold, for a moment it raised new hope for building a stronger trolley-bus system after years of decline. However such unification did not last for one year before a fracture that saw Bashi Trolley-bus relinquished five routes (11, 17, 18, 24, 16) to Bashi Xin-xin, another subsidiary under Bashi Group. From 2003 to 2005, we not only saw no progress was made into developing trolley-bus technology and expansion of new network, but also total abolishment of trolleys on two more routes (18, 21) and a continuous reduction in overall fleet size.

Bashi Xin-xin was formed in March of 1993, shortly before the privatization of transit system, as a premium transit service provider, it set off by the implementation of some so called premium routes that charged premium fare as a way to relieve the pressure on a heavily loaded public sector before the subway came into place. Although it was under the flagship of the then state owned enterprise of Shanghai Transit, it assumed sole responsibility for its own profit generation and losses, and therefore became the first model of privately operated transit company. From the very begining, Bashi Xin-xin is a notorious rice hauler, and since diesels are better haulers than trolleys, after the take over of trolley routes, it all comes naturally for Xin-xin to start flooding classic trolley routes which are still profitable on today's competitive market with diesels. This explains why route 17 almost became extinct, and while resurrection attempt by public protest would not save it from its final fate, the systematic purging of trolley is already creeping into other corners of the system such that as of the end of April, the ratio of diesel to trolley on route 24 has reached 1:1 with 15 units of each type. For Bashi Trolley-bus, although it is still the larger operator, its interest in trolley-bus operation is also detesting, in fact it becomes quite clear now that should the complete dieselization of route 17 succeeded in February, route 15 would quickly follow its footsteps. As long as trolleys are not pulled out from rice hauling business, the once glamourous trolley system of Shanghai will inevitably meet its Doomsday.

[captaintrolley]

All in all, Shanghai trolley-bus system is still a charming system, I encountered only one dewirement during my days of advanture. However this charming system may not last longer if no one challenges the negative elements that interfere the successful operation of the system. Such negative elements come both internally and externally.

Sounds like those negative elements are everywhere. Edmonton Trolley Coalition and Save Muni to the rescue.

[Ode of Bund]

If you have been to Shanghai, ridden on its lovely trolley system, and wish to see the vibrant and youthful friend again during your next visit, I plead you not to spare your wisdom by writing to the municipal government of Shanghai, reference to some of the places where you can make your voice heard are listed as following:

http://www.shdpc.gov.cn/sub1b.jsp 上海发改委

http://www.shghj.gov.cn/ghj_web/xfts.aspx?col_id=422 上海市规划委

http://jtj.sh.gov.cn/node28/node31/200507/con116521.htm 上海城市交通管理

http://www.cin.gov.cn/default.htm 国家建设部

http://www.ndrc.gov.cn/ 国家发改委

If language is a barrier, you can forward your suggestion to me for a collective submission, your help is much appreciated.

Thank you.

[Ode of Bund]

Sunwin SWB5105KGP3 (abbreviated as KGP) air-conditioned trolley on route 6 turning from Henan Road northbound into Wujin Road eastbound. The trolley has just departed from it's Henan Road terminus.

HZWG100K air conditioned trolley coach (abbreviated as HOA) by Hangzhou Changjiang Bus Corporation Ltd. Here coach 050 and 048 assigned to route 8 are waiting for their next run at San-men Road Terminus in northeast suburb of Shanghai. Route 8 is now the only trolley route that is not infested with diesel.

Sunwin super capacitor bus model SWBS1C, coach 003 on route 11 clock-wise circle, approaching Lao-xi-men (the Old West Gate).

Super capacitor bus recharging at Lao-xi-men stop.

Super capacitor bus recharging again at Da-dong-men stop (the Big East Gate) after runing half a circle around the old city, while KGP coach 331 on route 24 surpasses from the center lane.

An old 1998 model SK5105 non air-conditioned trolley on route 11 clock-wise circle passing the super capacitor bus, today as super capacitor buses become more reliable, trolleys are only running on the counter clock-wise circle.

KGP coach 376 on route 13 has just left the narrow and shanty back alleys at Tsao-jia-du (Cao-jia-du) terminus. In September 2002, construction in the area forced route 13 to abandon its terminus and extend to Dr. Sun Yat-san Park, for the moment the extension was cheered by both customers and trolley fans alike in the hope that it would become permament. However after the construction, route 13 was driven out of Dr. Sun Yat-san Park and retreated into the back alleys once again. Several high rise apartment buildings are currently under construction at Tsao-jia-du, roads in the area will be excavated once the building construction is finished, and ridership should also pick up by then. Route 13 is a major east-west cross town line in the northern edge of downtown Shanghai, despite fierce competion along this corridor, the ridership is stable.

A technician is adjusting the spring tension on KGP coach 378, once it is done, it left the terminus immediately for its next run. Notice the structure of parking wires.

[Ode of Bund]

HOA coaches 055 and 061 at Dong-xin-qiao terminus, the very first trolley-bus terminus since the birth of route 14 on November 15th, 1914. Today it resembles nothing like the original terminus which consisted a turn table. Noticed the much lowered floor height of these HOA trolleys, although they are not yet fully low floor, it is a much better design than the KGP model.

Coach 061 arrived at sub-urban terminus, notice the little shack on top the steel stand, this is a shoe changing booth.

A stop sign for route 14, the red arrow points to the current stop.

Shot from a pedestrian overpass, two southbound trolleys on Henan Road N., the 13 on the right side is about to make a left turn onto Haining Road.

Unidentified KGP trolley assigned to route 15 has just departed from Shanghai Stadium Terminus heading for Tianmu Road E. KGP coach 273 sandwiched between a Volvo (Sunwin) bus and a Daewoo bus at Shanghai Stadium, coach 273 was reallocated from route 17.

Coach 273 was caught again, making a tough U-turn at Zhejiang Road N./Tianmu Road E. T intersection before heading back to Shanghai Stadium.

Non air-conditioned model SK5115GP3 (abbreviated as E5G) trolley by the then Shanghai Coach, the only trolley that is 11.5m in length, uses an 8-ton chassis, and has a power steering pump. First prodution went into place in 1999, total number of production is unclear, has been assigned to routes 15, 20, 25 and 28. As of the end of March 2007, all units of this model have been pulled off from active service. Two shots of coach 023 on parasol covered Heng-shan Road in southwest Shanghai.

February 13th, at the foot of Lupu Bridge during my first attempt to catch a route 17 trolley, outraged to learn that they have been replaced by a whole bunch of baby sunwins (SOD) since February 10th.

Sunday February 25th, surrendering to the pressure of public protest, Bashi Xin-xin reassigned 6 units of the most dilapitated 1998 model SK5105 trolleys as a symolic gesture that route 17 was still a trolley route. The number of baby sunwins was 6 times more than the number of trolleys. Coach 231, the noisiest, and the most vibrant trolley that I've ever ridden, has just arrived at Tongbei Road Termius.

HOA coach 011 on route 19 also at Tongbei Road Terminus (shared with route 17). HOA coach 033 during a dewirement.

[Ode of Bund]

KGP coach 306 on route 20 at the Bund, Shanghai's famous waterfront, the Oriental Pearl TV Tower that looks like a molecular structure is also in the view.

One of the remaining SK5115GP trolleys, coach 036, crossing Nanjing Road W./Shaanxi Road N., after the retirement at the end of March, route 20 joined routes 23 and 24 to become fully air-conditionalized.

Nanjing Road, the most elegant commercial street in China.

An interesting set of spiral wires where trolleys can short turn from both directions.

A set of power on/off switch on Nanjing Road, a 20 just coasted through while the next 24 switched to make a right turn onto Xi-kang Road northbound.

All wrapped KGP coach 002 on route 20 near Jing-an Monastery, and wiring diagram.

KGP coach 340 on route 22 in the midst of narrow street Min-hang Road. It made a retreat into this location as its downtown terminus since 1992, its diesel version, which has been rebranded as route 33 runs all the way to the 16th Pier along famous waterfront, the Bund. The 16th pier used to be dock for ocean liners serving coastal areas of China, with much of the ridership turning away to rail-ways, all ocean liners ceased operation, and the entire plaza was blew up in a controled explosion. Today the gap in ridership between 22 and 33 has greatly narrowed with the loss of liner customers.

KGP and HOA coaches on route 23 at Xin-kang-li Terminus, route 23 is fully air-conditionalized.

KGP coach 360 turning from Jiang-ning Road southbound to Nanjing Road W. eastbound, notice the overhead curve segment, each segment does not have a big bend, therefore as many as 5 segments are required for a 90 degree right angle turn.

KGP trolleys on route 24 going through an underpass which resembles the former cross harbor tunnel trolley-bus, the overhead is so low that you can almost touch it. Route 24 is also fully air-conditionalized.

Coach 336 southbound on Shaanxi Road, crossing Nanjing Road.

[Ode of Bund]

Westbound (toward city center) KGP Coach 385 assigned to route 25 on Ping-liang Road, crossing Long-chang Road (route 28), the set of turning wires is for garage access.

KGP and HOA coaches U-turning at Jun-gong Road Terminus, this is the industrial heartland of Shanghai as well as the far east end of Shanghai's trolley-bus system, notice the old factory building in the background.

As many as six trolleys are in the view at Jun-gong Road terminus, the first one in the line, KGP 387 is the best KGP trolley that I've ever ridden, fast acceleration, no vibration at all.

Sunwin SWB5105GP3 (no K) non air-conditioned coach 022, built in 2001, one of the first batch of Sunwin trolleys, has just left Zha-pu Road Terminus. This is supposed to be a temporarory terminus, however it is unlikely that it will not become permanent. KGP coache 385 at the same location, running along the north shore of Wu-song River, the largest tributary of River Huangpu.

The cluttered overhead at Tian-tong Road/Henan Road N.

Dilapitated 1998 model SK5105GP trolleys on route 26, this route used to have some air conditioned trolleys, but somehow Bashi Xin-xin decided to pull off all air-conditioned trolleys, and as of February when these photos were shot, air-conditioned service was only available by diesels. Route 26 was literally squeezed out from the competition when overhead was banned on Huaihai Road, another graceful commercial street after Nanjing Road, after the construction of Shanghai's first subway. Today the city center portion of the route is running on Chang-le Road, a sardine packed secondary street that sees endless bicycle flow. Since route 26 is no longer highly profitable, it becomes the concentration camp of old, near retirement age, trolleys, catching a trolley on route 26 is much easier than routes 15 & 17. A twist of event in April, Wenchao reports that Bashi Xin-xin decides to reinstate air-conditioned trolleys on route 26, not by buying new vehicles, but by pulling off as many as 7 or 8 units from route 24, and replenishing the losses by assigning the equal number of diesels to route 24. Route 24 currently has the higest ridership among all trolley routes, diesels are supplemented to make it an even better rice hauler.

Trolleys under the north-south axis viaduct, to the east is the much widened Jin-ling Road, to the west is the largely untouched secondary street, Chang-le Road. Notice the curve elements, a combination of locally manufactured K&M style pendulum hangers, as well as wire clamps suspended directly from the cross span. Streets in Shanghai are usually on winding courses, curve elements are used extensively throughout the system.

Coach 163 at Hong-qiao Road Terminus, here is the post secondary educational district, as well as the far west end of the trolley system.

[Ode of Bund]

Three KGP coaches on route 28 at Hui-min Road Terminus. Route 28 penetrates the central regions of Yangpu District, the industrial heartland. With an overall length near 12 km, it is now the second longest trolley route in Shanghai after route 17.

Much older 1997 model SK5105 trolleys still serving route 28.

[captaintrolley]

Thanks Zachary, for a lovely, lengthy, informative post.

[NEOPLAN]

Now the situation of the trolleys in Shanghai isn't good,the old scrapped are much more than the new coming.

[Ode of Bund]

As of June 2007, Shanghai Bashi Xin-xin has quitely pulled off the last two remaining trolleys on route 17 even though the city transportation department has never approved the request to change operating vehicle, and no execuses from road construction or aesthetic renovation existed this time for the dieselization. Bashi Xin-xin first attempted to replace all trolleys with diesels in February, but surrendering to mounting criticism of such practice, Xin-xin restored 6 dilapidated SK5105 1998 model non-airconditioned trolleys back onto route 17, as these trolleys reached the end of their life expectancy, Xin-xin instinctively replaced them with diesels.

The transfer of ownership of route 24 from Xin-xin back to Dian-che (Bashi Trolley-bus) has also been completed, with the transfer of ownership also comes the transfer of fleet, a total of 15 units of KGP air-conditioned trolleys (serial #293~302, 323~327) have come along, Bashi Trolley-bus then allocated 3 more units of it's own stock (KGP #285~286, Hangzhou Changjiang trolley HOA #064), plus 11 units of SOD baby Sunwin diesels to make up the new team. Route 24 will be operated by the third division of the trolley-bus company, new overhead has been installed at two locations for access to Wu-ning Road Garage, the primary base of Bashi Trolley-bus.