Battery-Assisted Trolleybus Network Design: Model and Application

Battery-assisted trolleybuses (BATs) are among the options to be considered for electrifying bus fleets in cities, with established trolleybus catenary networks. BATs charge on the move using existing trolleybus catenaries and can extend their routes using onboard batteries. As such, in cases where thermal bus lines overlap to some extent with a trolleybus catenary network, these may be replaced by BATs; such a case has the advantage of avoiding either opportunity charging facilities or the use of (heavy) electric buses operating under a depot-charging scheme. Aiming at exploiting these operational advantages, this paper proposes a transit route network electrification problem dealing with the optimal selection of existing bus lines to be operated by BATs. The proposed model was applied to a real-world case study in Athens, Greece, with results showing that design objective prioritization largely affects the degree of electrification attained.