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Can Basel's trolleybus survive?
BVB are pressing ahead with their plans to withdraw trolleybuses. Although financial problems have cast doubt on the intent to do so this year - leading to the cancellation of the sale of these vehicles to TPG (Geneva), BVB are still relentlessly pressing ahead with abandonment plans. To alleviate ecological concerns, BVB are promising to use buses with so called bio-diesel on current trolleybus routes. These are supposedly more ecological than trolleybuses. According to Pro Trolleybus, this argument is questionable: Wheras Basel's trolleybuses use only power from renewable hydro-electric sources (and not nuclear as the pro-dieselists claim), these bio-diesel buses use fossil diesel fuel with 15 percent rape-oil extracts added. The ecological balance fails to consider fuel expended in cultivating this crop. Like any other diesel bus, a bio-diesel also emits toxic gases. In brief, only the name is bio. Pro Trolleybus are planning to initiate a referendum on the retention of trolleybuses.
this item was added on
16.06.2004 (7253 days ago) |