Trolleybus in Valparaiso

As mentioned at last post, escalators are city icon for Valparaiso traffic system. Today, I will talk about another city character, which is trolleybus. Actually, this system was very popular and normal around the world since 1900; Currently, only few countries still operate trolleybus. Valparaiso is the country which operate longest route of trolleybus in the world. 

Trolleybus is the electric bus that draws its electricity from overhead wires using trolley poles. Valparaiso began to operate this system since 1952, it is the second oldest trolleybus in Latin America. After 1994, trolleybus route at Valparaiso became the only operational trolleybus route in Chile. In 2003, Chilean Government appointed this system as national monument to reflect its value. Besides, trolleybus has helped Valparaiso gain its designation by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site. 

The advantages of the trolleybus are:

1. Trolleybus system is more environmentally friendly, compared with buses or cars in the city, it release less greenhouse gas in Valparaiso. Therefore, the system is suitable for sustainability. 
2. Because of trolleybus system started operating since 1952, I believe that trolleybus has long-lived working period . 
3. Also, it has become the landmark of Valparaiso. As a tourist point, people could not only catch the trolleybus to visit city centre, also feel and understand real valparaiso life. 

There are some disadvantages about trolley:

1. The speed of the trolleybus is so slow, if somebody in hurry, he or she cannot get on the trolleybus to reach the destination in time. This slow-speed trolleybus is just suitable for tourist or leisure hour. 
2. Two wires and poles require the unchanged route for trolleybus, therefore, this trolleybus is just located at specified locality.
3. Besides, wires and pole occupy urban space. In Valparaiso, trolleybus is mainly operated at city centre. Maybe it has broken the overall urban design and plan, urban designers cannot redesign the city centre avoid breaking current trolleybus line. 

Compared advantages with disadvantages, I believe that trolleybuses are good for tourist purpose, local government should keep them appear. However, the government can redesign and remodel a new  small area for trolleybus route, maybe a short line just for tourists.