Work underway to restore Tallinn trolleybus system ahead of next year's return
Work will start this week in Tallinn ahead of the return of trolleybuses to the capital next summer.
Trolleybuses had stopped running in Tallinn a year ago, but with the €30-million procurement of 40 new generation hybrid vehicles, they will return to the city's streets.
Preparatory work is underway in the Mustamäe district of Tallinn, with work to replace overhead cables ongoing, and supporting structures to be replaced too.
From June next year the trolleybuses are set to return to Sõpruse pst, a major thoroughfare. Forty models have been custom ordered from Škoda, and the first prototype is expected to be completed in November.
The new models are hybrid variants which can run on their own battery power as well. The trolleybuses will use the overhead lines only on Sõpruse pst as far as the Koskla stop, Tallinn City Transport (TLT) project manager Raido Rüütel said; the lines will not be extended beyond that, and for the remainder of the journey into the city center and back, the vehicles will run on battery power.
All told they will run for 25-kilometer on battery only. Once reaching the Koskla stop, the trolleybuses will re-attach to the overhead lines, which will also recharge the batteries, for the rest of the journey.
The trolleybuses themselves come with a price-tag of €30 million, while the overhead line work will cost €4.6 million. The original order was expanded significantly, while the purchase is part-EU funded.
A total of 430 support poles along with their foundations will be replaced in the Mustamäe district, while the connecting infrastructure will be transferred to the new poles once installed.
This work may start as early as the second half of next week and could affect pedestrian traffic. Personnel will direct pedestrians away from hazard areas when needed Leonhard Weiss OÜ project manager Jaagup Zupping said.
Trolleybuses first made their appearance in Tallinn in 1965, and ended, temporarily, in October last year. TLT laid off 40 staff as part of the scaling down of trolleybus lines, while 71 more were reassigned within the company as bus, tram, or social transport drivers.
There are also plans to extend the new network's reach to Haabersti, west of Mustamäe, and to Lasnamäe to the east.
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Editor: Andrew Whyte, Johanna Alvin
Source: 'Aktuaalne kaamera'
