Trolleybuses in Belfast

Belfast trolleybus system

Belfast trolleybus on Shore Road, heading towards the city centre, May 1968.
Operation
Locale	Belfast, Northern Ireland
Open	28 March 1938
Close	12 May 1968
Status	Closed
Routes	17
Operator(s)	Belfast Corporation Tramways
Infrastructure
Stock	245 (maximum)

The Belfast trolleybus system once served the city of Belfast, Northern Ireland. It was the only trolleybus system ever to be built in Ireland. Opened on 28 March 1938,^[1][2] it gradually replaced the Belfast tramway network.

The Belfast system was the second largest of all the now-defunct trolleybus systems in the United Kingdom, after the London system. It had a total of 17 routes, and a maximum fleet of 246 trolleybuses.^[2] It was closed on 12 May 1968.^[1][2]

Five of the former Belfast trolleybuses are now preserved. Two of them are based at the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum, Cultra, Holywood, County Down, one at the East Anglia Transport Museum at Carlton Colville, Suffolk, and one at Warnham, Sussex. The fifth one is at the National Transport Museum of Ireland, in Dublin, Republic of Ireland.^[3]

See also

• History of Belfast
• Transport in Belfast
• List of trolleybus systems in the United Kingdom

References

Notes

1. Joyce, J.; King, J. S.; and Newman, A. G. (1986). British Trolleybus Systems, pp. 22–26, 159. London: Ian Allan Publishing. ISBN 0-7110-1647-X.
2. Short, Peter. "Former UK systems". British Trolleybus Society. Retrieved 18 March 2011.
3. Zebedee, John (30 November 2010). "A List of Preserved Trolleybuses in the UK". British Trolleybus Society. Retrieved 18 March 2011.

Further reading

• Belfast Corporation Transport. London: PSV Circle / Omnibus Society. 1968. OCLC 505168814.
• Maybin, Mike (1996). A nostalgic look at Belfast trolleybuses, 1938-1968. Wadenhoe, East Northamptonshire, UK: Silver Link. ISBN 978-1-85794-068-8.
• Maybin, Mike (2006). Ireland in the age of the trolleybus: Belfast: 1938-1968. Kettering, Northamptonshire, UK: Silver Link. ISBN 978-1-85794-256-9.
• Harvey, David (2010). Belfast Trolleybuses. Stroud, Gloucestershire, UK: Amberley Publishing. ISBN 978-1-84868-466-9.
• Montgomery, W H (2001). Belfast Corporation Buses 1926-1973. Newtownards, County Down, Northern Ireland, UK: Colourpoint Press. ISBN 978-1-898392-64-4.
• Newman, Richard (2007). Irish Buses in the Mid 1960s. Newtownards, County Down, Northern Ireland, UK: Colourpoint Press. ISBN 978-1-904242-88-8.

External links

Media related to Trolleybuses in Belfast at Wikimedia Commons

• National Trolleybus Archive
• British Trolleybus Society, based in Reading
• National Trolleybus Association, based in London