Fifty years ago, the last trolleybus system in the UK ended. The trolleybus completed its final journey in Bradford, bringing to an end a brief spell as a mode of public transport. The trolleybus was an electric bus powered by overheard wires, using spring-loaded trolley poles – with each bus using two wires and two poles, which differentiated it from a tram, which used just one wire and one pole.

Trolleybuses had their origins in the 1880s, with a system being demonstrated in Berlin back in 1882. Development was slow, however, and it was only when a trolleybus was demonstrated in Paris 18 years later that interest started to grow. During the Edwardian era, several European cities started to operate trolleybuses, but it was only in 1911 that they came to Britain. This was when Leeds and Bradford introduced their new systems. By the mid 1920s, it was said that there were 191 trolleybuses in Scotland, and by 1935, there were over 1000 in that country alone. By this time, it was noted that trolleybuses were growing in number, replacing the ‘archaic’ trams, which could transport large numbers of commuters, but cost a lot of money. Trolleybuses were more flexible, and could compete better with the motorbus, it was argued.

London only introduced the trolleybus in 1931, but once they reached the metropolis, news stories and incidents involving the trolleybuses or their drivers increased. In 1937, one driver, Frederick Hasler, was fined £2 for driving through a red light; he had claimed that the sun was shining on the lights so he hadn’t seen them change. Conversely, another trolleybus driver, Frederick Wandsworth, was commended in 1954 when he saw a motorbike catch fire while driving through Acton. Wandsworth stopped his vehicle, grabbed a fire extinguisher and put out the flames. Its owner had been trying to start it when it caught alight; had it not been for Wandsworth driving down the road, the motorcyclist could have been badly injured.

Accidents and tragedies
There were instances of trolleybus accidents and tragedies. In February 1938, for example, 17-year-old Joan Bradbury was knocked down by a trolleybus at Staples Corner in Hendon, north London, and was killed. The trolleybus had been travelling over a crossing on the Edgware Road when a boy ran out of a side road and crossed the road to catch a stationary bus the other side. Joan followed him, without looking to see if any vehicle was coming. As the trolleybus headed towards her, she suddenly stopped, petrified, in the middle of the road. Although the driver, Jack Forder, braked as hard as he could and sounded his horn, Joan did not move, and he could not stop in time to avoid hitting her.

A month later, 25-year-old Martha Grist was killed when she was out cycling, again at Hendon. A sack of sawdust had fallen from a pony trolley, or truck, hitting Martha; she was thrown from her bike and fell under a trolleybus, which ran over her. She suffered multiple injuries, and although she was admitted to hospital, she never regained consciousness and died two days later. Although the trolleybus driver, Nathan Worger, had seen Martha on her bike, he was more concerned about safely passing her and the pony trolley, and had sounded his hooter to warn them of him approaching. He didn’t see the accident but heard a crash and stopped. He could not have avoided running Martha over, and in fact was a very safe driver who had been given a gold medal for his driving and had driven trams for 18 years before starting on the trolleybuses two years earlier. Although an inquest verdict of accidental death was returned, it was also found that the pony trolley driver had failed to tie the sacks onto the trolley, leaving them loose.

Belfast had its own trolleybus system. One of the saddest fatalities there came in 1944, and involved a trolleybus in Belfast. Edward Farrelly, aged six, was hit by one of the vehicles on the Newtownards Road one Saturday night, and died later on at the Children’s Hospital. An inquest absolved the driver of any blame, saying that he could have done nothing to avoid the little boy. Another incident in Belfast, six years later, also involved a child. A nine-year-old boy, Jack Woods, was knocked down on the New Lodge Road. Although he received severe head injuries, he was luckier than Edward Farrelly, and was treated for his injuries at hospital. Head injuries were often reported when accidents occurred involving trolleybuses; a woman was injured in a similar way to Jack on the Cregagh Road, in 1943, receiving both head injuries and a concussion.

Back in London, other pedestrians were also injured by trolleybuses. In 1939, one Miss E. Hills had to be taken to hospital for concussion, shock and a lacerated scalp after being knocked down by a trolleybus at a busy junction. Months earlier, Alfred Lansdell of Camden Town was similarly knocked down and injured, while Ambrose Manning fell from a trolleybus near Golders Green and injured his leg. However, you could also be injured when actually on the trolleybus. In Bradford, a trolleybus conductor and one of his passengers, a female textile worker, were injured in 1949 when their trolleybus suddenly swung across the road, coming to a stop in a neighbouring one. It was spotted swaying from side to side a few seconds earlier by an passer-by, before skidding and turning. The conductor was getting ready to jump from the vehicle, worried it might fall onto its side, before it turned and he was thrown to the ground. He and his passenger – one of only two on the trolleybus at the time – were treated for shock at hospital, but the other passenger appears to have escaped with no harm done to them. In an earlier accident in the Croydon area, a trolleybus had collided with an overhead cable standard in 1935, injuring its driver and one of the trolleybus company’s inspectors. Two female passengers were also injured. Other accidents, though, were caused not through mechanical or technical issues, but by an individual’s own clumsiness. One west London trolleybus inspector, C.G. Norton, was injured in 1937 when he was walking up the steps to the top deck to collect fares. He fell backwards and hit a glass panel, and had to be taken to Acton Hospital to get injuries to his right leg and a cut on his back treated.

If you had an accident involving a trolleybus, it might be your own fault – or a court might determine that, even if you were a lot smaller than the bus. In 1950, George Campbell of Ashton-under-Lyne was riding his motorbike when an ambulance hit a trolleybus. At the Manchester Assizes, the judge held that George was responsible for the cost of repairs to the trolleybus because of the way he had been riding. Initially, Manchester Corporation had claimed £740 from George for the repairs, but in a later civic action, the judge halved the claim. This was not the only trolleybus accident that resulted in a court case; in Belfast, there were cases in 1943, 1955 and 1960. In fact, the Belfast papers regularly reported accidents involving trolleybuses, which might give you reason to believe that they were a dangerous form of transport; but, as the case of George Campbell shows, many of them involved pedestrians or other vehicle users not looking out for the trolleybuses approaching, and either driving unsafely near them, or walking too close, or not looking properly before crossing roads. The number of accidents where the trolleybus driver was at fault appear far lower.

End of an era
It wasn’t too long before the trolleybus’s days were numbered. London stopped running trolleybuses in May 1962, with the last one in Ipswich travelling in July 1963. In Wolverhampton, the last trolleybus journey took place in March 1967, with some 250 spectators gathering to photograph it coming into the bus depot for the final time. These ‘mourners’, as they were described, were all members of the National Trolleybus Association, and had come from as far afield as Nottingham, Reading and Southend. It was noted in press coverage of the journey that the electric trolleybus was deemed defunct because British Rail was due to start electric trains in the West Midlands the following day. In May that year, Glasgow ended its trolleybus system. In Reading, fans of the trolleybus, which started in the town in 1936, descended in November 1968. On the penultimate day of its operation, it ran a normal service, but with buses being introduced into the service during the evening; the following day, buses ran in the morning, but at midday, the trolleybuses took over for a final shift with special souvenir tickets being issued to passengers. Not all the trolleybuses stopped in the 1960s, though. It was only in 1972 that the 11 surviving Bradford trolleybuses stopped, after a final weekend of carrying enthusiasts ‘from over the country on special trips to and from the terminus, at £1 a ticket’. Bradford was the first English city to introduce the trolleybus, in 1911, and it would be the last to get rid of it.

Within a few years of their demise, the trolleybuses were being mourned. In Bradford, some of its trolleybuses had been destined for preservation societies and museums, in recognition of their place in transport history. In 1981, the London Transport Museum ran an exhibition commemorating the 50th anniversary of their commemoration, and publicity described them as ‘quiet, sensible, non-polluting vehicles’. Today, trams are seeing a resurgence in many cities, with lines being extended in places such as Manchester and Birmingham; so could we see a similar return for the humble trolleybus? Perhaps not, but it retains an affection among some of our population to this day – despite its association with quite a few accidents. {