TOSA
ALAN MILLAR has been to Geneva to look at how ABB’s innovative flash charging battery technology has allowed the Swiss city to achieve the performance and availability of trolleybuses in vehicles that require no overhead catenary
Switzerland is western Europe’s land of trolleybuses. Twelve systems serve cities and towns in a country where the railways are electrified and four cities have modern tram networks. While that gives it a head start in the current quest for zero emission city transport, it is no reason for it to stick with diesel on the parts of the public transport system that lie beyond the trolleybus wires.
There are growing numbers of battery electrics and hybrids around the country, some in quite small towns, but Geneva — with the second biggest Swiss trolleybus system (six cross-city routes complementing four cross-city tram lines) — has pioneered TOSA (Trolleybus Optimisation Système Alimentation), an opportunity charged battery system developed by ABB, the Swiss-Swedish multinational power giant. It is billed as a trolleybus system without overhead wires.
The ETS docks as soon as the driver applies the parking brake
TOSA also spells out original partners TPG (Geneva public transpor…
