{"id":688431,"date":"2026-05-23T11:28:32","date_gmt":"2026-05-23T11:28:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/688431\/"},"modified":"2026-05-23T11:28:32","modified_gmt":"2026-05-23T11:28:32","slug":"first-look-inside-translinks-new-four-door-articulated-trolley-buses-built-in-europe-daily-hive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/688431\/","title":{"rendered":"First look inside TransLink’s new four-door articulated trolley buses built in Europe | Daily Hive"},"content":{"rendered":"

TransLink\u2019s existing highest-capacity buses, the 60-ft-long articulated bus vehicle, have three doors, which follows the typical standard for the buses used on North American public transit systems.<\/p>\n

For the 40-ft-long, regular-sized bus, there are typically two doors.<\/p>\n

But the incoming fleet of vehicles set to completely replace Metro Vancouver\u2019s aging trolley bus fleet<\/a> will have an extra door<\/a>, located at the very rear of the bus.<\/p>\n

The public transit authority has selected Polish manufacturer Solaris Bus & Coach to replace its entire trolley bus fleet<\/a>. As previously reported by Daily Hive Urbanized in March 2025<\/a>, TransLink\u2019s future trolley buses will be based on the company\u2019s \u201cTrollino\u201d model and be built in Europe.<\/p>\n

Currently, there are 262 vehicles in the existing trolley bus fleet built in the 2000s by Winnipeg-based New Flyer, including 74 vehicles of 60-ft-long, two-door articulated buses and 188 vehicles of 40-ft-long, regular-sized, two-door buses.<\/p>\n

A TransLink spokesperson confirmed to Daily Hive Urbanized this week that they will be ordering 275 trolley buses from Solaris, representing a net gain of 13 vehicles. This includes 183 vehicles of 40-ft-long, three-door buses<\/a> and 92 vehicles of 60-ft-long articulated buses.<\/p>\n

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The completion of the first Solaris 60-ft articulated trolley bus for TransLink, getting ready for testing in Poland as seen in May 2026. (Marcin Gromadzki Public Transport Consulting)<\/p>\n

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The completion of the first Solaris 60-ft articulated trolley bus for TransLink, getting ready for testing in Poland as seen in May 2026. (Marcin Gromadzki Public Transport Consulting)<\/p>\n

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The completion of the first Solaris 60-ft articulated trolley bus for TransLink, getting ready for testing in Poland as seen in May 2026. (Marcin Gromadzki Public Transport Consulting)<\/p>\n

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The completion of the first Solaris 60-ft articulated trolley bus for TransLink, getting ready for testing in Poland as seen in May 2026. (Marcin Gromadzki Public Transport Consulting)<\/p>\n

The very first of the new 60-ft-long articulated trolley buses recently reached completion on the production line, and Solaris earlier this month began preparing its manufacturer\u2019s testing process of the pilot vehicle in Poland \u2014 before it is shipped off to Metro Vancouver for further extensive testing by TransLink at some point in the future.<\/p>\n

This first new 60-ft-long articulated trolley bus has four doors, with the extra door situated at the very end of the bus \u2014 where there is typically a bank of seating on the existing buses. The new vehicle otherwise has an interior configuration and materials that generally resemble what TransLink riders are used to, with some slight differences in seating layouts in certain areas.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, some of the seats are red in colour \u2014 not the usual blue \u2014 as a possible design feature to clearly visually indicate priority seating for seniors, pregnant women, people travelling with young children, and those with disabilities. Currently, on existing vehicles, priority seating is only indicated by signage stickers next to the seats.<\/p>\n

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The completion of the first Solaris 60-ft articulated trolley bus for TransLink, getting ready for testing in Poland as seen in May 2026. (Marcin Gromadzki Public Transport Consulting)<\/p>\n

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The completion of the first Solaris 60-ft articulated trolley bus for TransLink, getting ready for testing in Poland as seen in May 2026. (Marcin Gromadzki Public Transport Consulting)<\/p>\n

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The completion of the first Solaris 60-ft articulated trolley bus for TransLink, getting ready for testing in Poland as seen in May 2026. (Marcin Gromadzki Public Transport Consulting)<\/p>\n

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The completion of the first Solaris 60-ft articulated trolley bus for TransLink, getting ready for testing in Poland as seen in May 2026. (Marcin Gromadzki Public Transport Consulting)<\/p>\n

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The completion of the first Solaris 60-ft articulated trolley bus for TransLink, getting ready for testing in Poland as seen in May 2026. (Marcin Gromadzki Public Transport Consulting)<\/p>\n

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The completion of the first Solaris 60-ft articulated trolley bus for TransLink, getting ready for testing in Poland as seen in May 2026. (Marcin Gromadzki Public Transport Consulting)<\/p>\n

As well, the interior does not appear to have any pull-down cords along the length of the windows for riders to request a stop. But there appear to be many more push buttons for such a request to be conveniently made.<\/p>\n

However, TransLink\u2019s spokesperson emphasized that at this time, the design of their custom-designed variant of Solaris\u2019 Trollino bus for the 60-ft-long articulated bus has yet to be finalized.<\/p>\n

But as previously reported by Daily Hive Urbanized earlier this year<\/a>, the design process for the new 40-ft-long trolley bus<\/a> is much further along, with the inclusion of an extra door \u2014 a third door<\/a> \u2014 at the rear of the vehicle.<\/p>\n

The spokesperson also highlighted that compared to the typical 40-ft buses currently used by TransLink, the new trolley buses will have an additional LED next stop display. The new 40-ft trolley buses will have two of these displays instead of only the usual one at the front of the vehicle.<\/p>\n

Additionally, unlike the existing trolley bus fleet, all Solaris vehicles will come equipped with air conditioning for enhanced passenger comfort during warmer weather. TransLink has\u00a0required air conditioning in all bus orders since 2012<\/a>, making the current trolley buses among the last to operate without it.<\/p>\n

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The completion of the first Solaris 60-ft articulated trolley bus for TransLink, getting ready for testing in Poland as seen in May 2026. (Marcin Gromadzki Public Transport Consulting)<\/p>\n

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The completion of the first Solaris 60-ft articulated trolley bus for TransLink, getting ready for testing in Poland as seen in May 2026. (Marcin Gromadzki Public Transport Consulting)<\/p>\n

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The completion of the first Solaris 60-ft articulated trolley bus for TransLink, getting ready for testing in Poland as seen in May 2026. (Marcin Gromadzki Public Transport Consulting)<\/p>\n

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The completion of the first Solaris 60-ft articulated trolley bus for TransLink, getting ready for testing in Poland as seen in May 2026. (Marcin Gromadzki Public Transport Consulting)<\/p>\n

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The completion of the first Solaris 60-ft articulated trolley bus for TransLink, getting ready for testing in Poland as seen in May 2026. (Marcin Gromadzki Public Transport Consulting)<\/p>\n

Through a bidding process, TransLink chose Solaris to build its new fleet of trolley buses not only because it was cost competitive and could meet the established delivery timelines to replace the aging buses, but because their trolley buses have advanced battery technology that can also go off the overhead electrical wires for a long distance of up to 20 km<\/a>, with in-motion recharging of the battery when reconnected to the wires. This offers greatly enhanced resiliency, redundancy, and flexibility for how the future trolley buses can be operated.<\/p>\n

In stark contrast, TransLink\u2019s existing trolley buses can only travel less than one km when disconnected from the wires.<\/p>\n

The first new 40-ft-long trolley bus will arrive in Metro Vancouver later this year to begin TransLink\u2019s local testing process. It has yet to be determined when the first 60-ft-long articulated model could arrive for similar testing.<\/p>\n

After the successful local testing of the buses, TransLink anticipates there will be consistent mass production and arrivals of the new fleet starting in 2028.<\/p>\n

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The completion of the first Solaris 60-ft articulated trolley bus for TransLink, getting ready for testing in Poland as seen in May 2026. (Marcin Gromadzki Public Transport Consulting)<\/p>\n

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The completion of the first Solaris 60-ft articulated trolley bus for TransLink, getting ready for testing in Poland as seen in May 2026. (Marcin Gromadzki Public Transport Consulting)<\/p>\n

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The completion of the first Solaris 60-ft articulated trolley bus for TransLink, getting ready for testing in Poland as seen in May 2026. (Marcin Gromadzki Public Transport Consulting)<\/p>\n

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The completion of the first Solaris 60-ft articulated trolley bus for TransLink, getting ready for testing in Poland as seen in May 2026. (Marcin Gromadzki Public Transport Consulting)<\/p>\n

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The completion of the first Solaris 60-ft articulated trolley bus for TransLink, getting ready for testing in Poland as seen in May 2026. (Marcin Gromadzki Public Transport Consulting)<\/p>\n

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The completion of the first Solaris 60-ft articulated trolley bus for TransLink, getting ready for testing in Poland as seen in May 2026. (Marcin Gromadzki Public Transport Consulting)<\/p>\n

Although New Flyer manufactures trolley buses and supplied TransLink\u2019s current fleet of trolley buses and many of its other buses, the Canadian company\u2019s production backlog is well known within the bus manufacturing industry. A November 2024 report<\/a> indicated that New Flyer had a years-long backlog worth about $12 billion \u2014 equivalent to roughly 14,000 buses with 42 per cent consisting of zero-emission vehicles. Canada\u2019s other major bus manufacturer, Nova Bus, owned by Volvo, does not produce trolley buses.<\/p>\n

As for the new SkyTrain vehicle fleet for the Expo and Millennium lines, as of the middle of last month, TransLink has put in service eight five-car-long articulated Mark V trains (40 cars)<\/a>, with another three trains (15 cars) in the process of local testing. TransLink has currently ordered a total of 47 Mark V trains (235 cars), which means there are still an additional 39 train deliveries (195 cars) to go from Alstom\u2019s manufacturing plants in Eastern Canada as of last month.<\/p>\n

The initial wave of Mark V arrivals are being used to retire the entirety of SkyTrain\u2019s fleet of 150 Mark I cars<\/a> from the 1980s and early 1990s, before the later arrivals are used to provide a general system capacity increase for the Expo\/Millennium network and meet the needs of the Millennium Line\u2019s Broadway extension to Arbutus, opening in Fall 2027, and the Expo Line\u2019s Surrey-Langley extension, opening in late 2029. Since last summer, the deliveries have been occurring at a frequency of roughly one train (five cars) per month.<\/p>\n

As of mid-April 2026, 34 Mark I cars have been retired, with some being repurposed for new creative legacy uses<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0others sent to the scrapyard<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The last Mark V train in the current order is expected to arrive in 2029, but this will be seamlessly followed by the continued arrival of additional vehicles well into the 2030s from a future exercise of TransLink\u2019s options to order even more Mark V trains \u2014 for the specific purpose of retiring all of the Mark II trains from the 2000s<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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TransLink\u2019s pilot 40-ft Solaris trolley bus, as seen in Poland in March 2026. (Marcin Gromadzki Public Transport Consulting)<\/p>\n

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TransLink\u2019s pilot 40-ft Solaris trolley bus, as seen in Poland in March 2026. (Marcin Gromadzki Public Transport Consulting)<\/p>\n

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TransLink\u2019s pilot 40-ft Solaris trolley bus, as seen in Poland in March 2026. (Marcin Gromadzki Public Transport Consulting)<\/p>\n

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TransLink\u2019s pilot 40-ft Solaris trolley bus, as seen in Poland in March 2026. (Marcin Gromadzki Public Transport Consulting)<\/p>\n

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TransLink\u2019s pilot 40-ft Solaris trolley bus, as seen in Poland in March 2026. (Marcin Gromadzki Public Transport Consulting)<\/p>\n

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TransLink\u2019s pilot 40-ft Solaris trolley bus, as seen in Poland in March 2026. (Marcin Gromadzki Public Transport Consulting)<\/p>\n

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TransLink\u2019s pilot 40-ft Solaris trolley bus, as seen in Poland in March 2026. (Marcin Gromadzki Public Transport Consulting)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TransLink\u2019s existing highest-capacity buses, the 60-ft-long articulated bus vehicle, have three doors, which follows the typical standard for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":688432,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[45,49,48],"class_list":["post-688431","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-ca","tag-canada"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/688431","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=688431"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/688431\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/688432"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=688431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=688431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=688431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}