Competitiveness of trolleybus in urban transport

In the search for alternative transportation modes in urban public transport, this paper suggests a comparison between the competitiveness of trolleybus and diesel bus transport modes. This evaluation is based on the relevant life-cycle costs, highlighting that trolleybus transport has a starting high charge of vehicles and wiring purchase as well as the disadvantage arising, in Italy, from the higher price of electric energy compared with diesel oil. Because of these factors, the trolleybus is less competitive than the diesel bus for the Italian urban centres although more friendly for the environment. In the last part of the paper, a case study shows that energy prices and car purchase have a negative influence on the present competitiveness of the trolleybus.