UK Trolleybus Systems

Trolleybuses in the UK finished in public service in 1972 with the closure of the Bradford system (which was also the first). Since then trolleybuses can only be experienced in the UK in museums, although they are thriving in many towns abroad.

Several attempts have been made to return trolleybuses to Britain's streets, notably in West Yorkshire in the 1970/80's and a prototype trolleybus was even built for a proposed South Yorkshire system in 1985 (this now resides at the Trolleybus Museum at Sandtoft). The latest attempts are generally where tram schemes have been turned down, the most likely currently was to be in Leeds in West Yorkshire, but even this has been turned down. They were also being considered to extend the Sheffield tramway to Rotherham; in both cases, the tramway alternatives were deemed too expensive, the latter is now suggested to be a tram-train system on railway track.

The following table shows the opening and closing dates of all the UK trolleybus systems (alphabetically).

System	Opened	Closed
Aberdare	January 15, 1914	July 1, 1925
Ashton-under-Lyne	August 26, 1925	December 30, 1966
Belfast	March 28, 1938	May 12, 1968
Birmingham	November 27, 1922	June 30, 1951
Bournemouth	May 13, 1933	April 20, 1969
Bradford	June 20,1911	March 26, 1972
Brighton Corporation	May 1, 1939	June 30, 1961
Brighton, Hove & District	March 3, 1946	March 24, 1959
Cardiff	March 1, 1942	January 11, 1970
Chesterfield	May 23, 1927	March 24, 1938
Cleethorpes	July 18, 1937	June 4, 1960
Darlington	January 17, 1926	July 31, 1957
Derby	January 9, 1932	September 9, 1967
Doncaster	August 22, 1928	December 14, 1963
Dundee	September 5, 1912	May 13, 1914
Glasgow	April 3, 1949	May 27, 1967
Grimsby	October 3, 1926	June 4, 1960
Halifax	July 20, 1921	October 24, 1926
Hastings	April 1, 1928	May 31, 1959
Huddersfield	December 4, 1933	July 13, 1968
Ipswich	September 2, 1923	August 23, 1963
Keighley	May 3, 1913	August 31, 1932
Kingston-upon-Hull	July 23, 1937	October 31, 1964
Leeds	June 20, 1911	July 26, 1928
Llanelli	December 26, 1932	November 8, 1952
London	May 16, 1931	May 8, 1962
Maidstone	May 1, 1928	April 15, 1967
Manchester	March 1, 1938	December 30, 1966
Mexborough & Swinton	August 31, 1915	March 26, 1961
Newcastle upon Tyne	October 1, 1935	October 1, 1966
Nottingham	April 10, 1927	June 30, 1966
Notts & Derby	January 7, 1932	April 25, 1953
Oldham	August 26, 1925	September 5, 1926
Pontypridd	September 18, 1930	January 31, 1957
Portsmouth	August 4, 1934	July 27, 1963
Ramsbottom	August 14, 1913	March 31, 1931
Reading	July 18, 1936	November 3, 1968
Rhondda	December 22, 1914	March 1, 1915
Rotherham	October 3, 1912	October 2, 1965
St Helens	July 11, 1927	July 1, 1958
Southend-on-Sea	October 16, 1925	October 28, 1954
South Lancashire	August 3, 1930	August 31, 1958
South Shields	October 12, 1936	April 29, 1964
Stockport	March 10, 1913	September 11, 1920
Teesside	November 8, 1919	April 4, 1971
Walsall	July 22, 1931	October 3, 1970
West Hartlepool	February 28, 1924	April 2, 1953
Wigan	May 7, 1925	September 30, 1931
Wolverhampton	October 29, 1923	March 5, 1967
York	December 22, 1920	January 5, 1935