Wellington's Original Trackless Tram: Weird & Wonderful NZ Stories

It has been almost two years since Wellington's iconic trolley-buses were decommissioned. The city-wide network that modern Wellingtonians are familiar with opened its first route in 1949 with a run from Oriental Parade through Roseneath. This network was expanded and continued to operate until 2017.

What most people aren't aware of, however, is that there was a much earlier trial of a trolley-bus system that operated between 1924 and 1932. This operated a single vehicle on a route that ran along the Hutt Road between Thorndon and Kaiwharawhara.

The Trackless Tram (as it was then called), was chosen as an option to serve the approximately 2 mile route between Thorndon and Kaiwharawhara. This was mostly because it was deemed too expensive to extend the existing traditional tram network beyond its existing terminus at Thorndon due to a the expense involved in relocating a water-main that ran beneath the Hutt Road, which would have been required to lay tram tracks along the route. 

The Wellington City Council's electrical engineer had seen trackless tram systems active in cities across the USA during a recent tour, so proposed this as a solution.

The project was announced in 1923, and opened in 1924 to much fanfare. The route was operated with a single vehicle, which was mostly built by AEC in England, with the body being built by DSC & Cousins in Auckland. 

Unfortunately the route wasn't very popular. Patronage never reached the levels hoped for, and with the introduction of diesel buses starting in the early 1930s, the route was decommissioned in May 1932.

This isn't a story of complete failure however, as it showed that operating electric buses was achievable. Although short-lived, the project was an important forerunner to the introduction of the more successful trolley-bus routes which opened around 17 years later and ran for almost 70 years!