My city also has been rolling out electric buses the last few years and they ride so much like their gas counterpart that I wouldn't be able to tell which is which without the design/colour scheme they chose to tell you which is which.
this post was submitted on 19 Nov 2025
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We have nearly all electric buses here in Oslo now, and whenever I wind up on a diesel bus I think I'm going to get hearing damage
Electric buses are far from silent, but WOW the amount of noise and stink we've just been tolerating with fossil fuels is insane. Even absent climate change, that'd be worth switching to electric vehicles.
I almost fucking asphixiated on a diesel bus yesterday because for some reason we had to stop for 5 minutes in the centre of the city and since it was quite cold the exhaust stayed low and just crept into the bus. Fucking traffic.
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I am for electrification but I just can't get behind electric buses.
My city made some study last year and the best way forward in terms of public transport is expansion of trolley bus network. With batteries and constant use it just doesn't make much economic sense. If you can build the wiring it is much better in long run. You don't have to have 100% coverage, 70+% is enough for partial battery powered trolley bus, then it starts to be economically feasible in the operating cost sense.
Also they will need to build some kind of metro system - probably as an extension of commuter trains.
Yeah..... We kinda solved this problem in the late 1800's. Overhead electric or powered third rail (depending on need) is really peak public transportation when it comes to cost and efficiency over time.
People always harp on the infrastructure cost when it comes to rail, but turn a complete blind eye on extreme cost of things like road maintenance and need for lane widening caused by everyone driving huge ass half filled busses everywhere.
Road maintenance is one of the largest expenses for most states in the US, and it's largely so much worse than other countries because our dependency on the trucking industry. We're all basically constantly subsidizing the trucking industry at great cost instead of funding adequate public rail.
Toronto has overhead electric trolleys. They got rid of the buses, but only because GM refused to make them. The fleet of overhead electric buses were 50 years old, they never broke.
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But I get the appeal of the ebus it just sounds cheaper. One city I won't name started to build trolley bus network again after they got rid of it in 70's (because of metro construction and expansion of trams), but they just doing it bit idiotically by wanting to have like 30% of it on wires and rest run on batteries.
Why? Because the infrastructure is just more expensive upfront.
Will it work? Nobody knows, people that are building it lobby to get it up to at least 50/50 then it is maybe just feasible.
I think that roads and buses have place in the transportation but you just need more options not just that.
Isn't a trolley bus just an electric bus with a "antenna" on top to charge its battery from an overhead cable?
Most of the ones run here don't have batteries. It is running on wires only - with battery trolley bus you need bit different wires so you can put the "antenna" up and down when needed. And since the network was built in 50s it didn't made sense to buy the partial ones until few years ago.
Keeping that in mind: would a good solution not be to have electric busses with batteries, which also have the umbilicle on a spring loaded or electronically actuated system to raise it to connect to the wires? This would allow said wires which would normally connect a trolley system to be placed along main strips while still allowed busses to travel along lesser used streets. The mobility of busses with the power system of trolleys to ensure they don't have to stop to recharge or refuel, they can just connect on the main strip and keep their battery banks full.
I'd even say with something like this a supercapacitor bank to quickly charge those to 100% on connection then allow those to charge the batteries. This would help to reduce charge cycles on the battery and help to keep the batteries in a constant charge or constant discharge state instead of having every bump in the road disconnect the batteries from the grid.
would a good solution not be to have electric busses with batteries, which also have the umbilicle on a spring loaded or electronically actuated system to raise it to connect to the wires?
Trains. Believe it or not. Boston still uses deisel commuter trains, including one “deisel under the wire” on the electrified Amtrak line. Everyone has been pushing to electrify but it’s expensive. Their solution is battery trains. They can run them on battery now, while tAking power from catenary as it’s built. Seems like a huge waste of money, but I guess you have to transition somehow
Pantograph
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I was excited when we started getting electric buses here, then I learnt we used to have trolley buses until the mid 70s. At least we got a tram line in 2021 so that's great
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So you're saying the better alternative to electric busses is...electric busses
The best electric busses have electric lines overhead, so you don't need big batteries.
It’s never enough for you people.
People love to let the perfect be the enemy of the good. They oppose incremental progress and preserve the status quo as a result.
Everything converges into either crabs or trains.
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Trolley busses are also much better for steep inclines!
A lot less versatile and a lot more disruptive to the community.
Not entirely against them but I dont have them a the gold standard.
Then you need to cable all the roads of bits networks. That seems expensive. Incidentally the tram line my city is building will be battery powered for part of its route, as they're not allowed to string pantograph wires in one area. It's mostly on wires
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Poznań, Poland has 25 hydrogen buses, and plans to have 9 more by May 2026
What is the source of energy to produce the hydrogen? The carbon footprint of hydrogen is pretty bad unless you have abundent renewable energy.
If it's in Poland, it's most likely coal unfortunately
Well Germany has to sell their shitty lignite coal to somebody..... It's not like their environmental laws will allow them to burn it in Germany. But Poland is fine.....no one cares about the polish greenhouse gasses. That's Poland's problem....right?
or from plastic burning. Poland is where most EU "recycled plastics" end up being incinerated.
To address the trolley bus comments - yes, they are better than battery buses, but my city already has a tram network and the bus network covers too much territory to justify putting trolley cables.
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My only complaint as a user (without considering any of the economics, or environmental impact) is that there has definitely been a bit of an adjustment period for the drivers - I've seen a few standing passengers go flying when the buses accelerate from zero like go-karts.
That was true of old trolley buses.
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My city is also playing with electric buses buying different brand and models. One Chinese brand they have drives me crazy because it rings a bell as it moves. It's louder and more annoying than the gas buses.
I wish my city was running the electric buses at night. Without the noise of other traffic to help mask it, the gas ones sound like explosions as they drive by at 3a. Unfortunately the bus company said it's cheaper to charge them at night when electricity costs the least.
which city?
Zagreb, Croatia.
We had a scam in our city where our electric buses were being charged by Diesel Generators.
Which in general is a more efficient way to use the diesel than if it was in an engine. However I'm not sure in this case, as I don't know how efficient a generator would be compared to how ridiculously efficient a modern engine is. But electric engines outclass anything out there when it comes using energy.
if you rip out an engene from a car, then you can operate it at its most efficient rpm all the time, instead of when you happen to cross the right rpm on the right gear. So an engine powering a generator can almost always be more efficient than in a car.
This is not taking the losses in the electrical system when using the generated power in a moter to make the car move. But in a lot of cases, you still come out ahead
The electrical losses are way less than the resistances of a mechanical drivetrain. It's around 10-25% lower apparently.
Given the fact that India is the most polluted country in every single metric and one of the most corrupt, doesn’t make me think the generators they used were at all efficient lol.
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Boston had newish hybrid deisel trolleys until 2023, when they replaced with battery electric buses.
They claimed the catenary was too expensive to maintain, especially with roadwork. Meanwhile the battery electric buses are completely self-contained, independent, and there are multiple manufacturers.
I’m sure it didn’t help that they were over complicated. This was a new transit line where everyone wanted a subway, but it was too complicated. They needed more capacity than a bus, able to maneuver tight corners, electric to go through tunnels, and unconstrained in traffic. They created Frankenstein monster and called it “bus rapid transit”. Partly dedicated roadway, partly in traffic. Partly above ground, partly below ground. Partly deisel, partly trolley. Bigger than buses but articulated to fit through narrow streets
Nice, i really love electric bus, it doesn't stink and it's quiet. My city rolled out some half decade ago, but it doesn't last as the company that made it(Chinese) doesn't support it anymore. Then we got another batch like last year i think. Hopefully this one last.
Understand that I'm from a different viewpoint as a Norwegian, but saw a diesel bus a few months back, and it was a weird blast from the past to see.
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So has mine! Although the buses in my city are hybrid, not fully electric.
Bravo but can we not put big-ass stickers on the windows please
They always put a promo sticker when introducing new buses into the fleet.
Edinburgh rolled them out somewhere in 2017 i think? Most of the buses are still diesel powered
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