(Canton)
By Zachary Jiang
Another new trolley-bus route is inaugurated into service in the
city of Guangzhou, China on November 8, 2001; and at the mean
time, two trolley-bus routes which were opened in 1999 and 2000
respectively also get 2 major extensions. The following website
contains a picture of the front view of several handsome looking
new trolley coaches that were waiting to be put into service on
Guang'zhou's newest trolley-bus route 111.
The latest addition to Guang'zhou's fleet are 50 units of Volvo trolley-buses with an overall value of $15 million RMB (equivalent to $1.81 USD) built by Shanghai Volvo, bringing the total number of trolley-buses in Guang'zhou to a historical level of 250. These low floor vehicles are 11 meters in length, equipped with powerful silicate auxiliary battery power capable for long distances of off wire operation, automatic repoling retriever for automatic rewiring. Distinctive features of peripheral devices also include king size rabbit ear shape rare view mirrors, round corner wind shield as well as anti-slippery floor material to ensure operation safety and passenger comfort. Dot matrix display screens are also being installed in each vehicle to display the information about the route such as the location of the stop(s), the availability of transfer to other routes, the point(s) of interest, and other major passenger destinations such as schools, shopping centers, parks, recreation centers or along the route. The acquisition of these new trolley-buses has made Guang'zhou transit system to become truly an envy of the nation's transit systems, because even in the place where these luxury coaches are manufactured, there isn't yet a single Volvo trolley-bus running, Guang'zhou is leading the nation in building up an elite trolley-bus fleet.
The opening of route 111 not only increases
the total number of trolley-bus
routes in Guang'zhou by one more route, and stimulates the growth
of
Guang'zhou's trolley-bus fleet, but also triggers an expansion
of the city's
trolley-bus network to reach 120.4 km in overall length. With
250
trolley-buses running through the streets of Guangzhou, it is
estimated the
overall amount of emission of Carbon Monoxide, Nitrogen Dioxide
and
non-methane hydrocarbon gas can be reduced by as much as 560,
260, and 222.5 metric tons respectively every year.
The opening of route 111 is a major break
through in that trolleys are now
operating beyond their former north end limit at Airport Road,
and as a
result of that, the existing trolley-bus route 108 which was opened
on
8/30/1999 also receives a major extension from Airport Road to
the new north end limit of trolley routes at Huang'shi (Yellow
Stone) Road sharing the
same overhead with route 111. The east end of route 111 is at
the new
transit hub station of Sha'hê, this provides an opportunity for route 110
(opened on 12/28/2000) to be extended from Yong'fu Road to Sha'hê as well. It is expected by the end of the year 2002, trolley-bus in Guang'zhou will make it to the south shore of the Pearl River.
