Tomorrow, from January 26, a new trolleybus route between Vishnevets and Devyatovka will start operating in Grodno, which will be operated by autonomous vehicles. Four new trolleybuses will be used on the route, one more will be in the trolleybus management for safety reasons. The average traffic interval along the route on weekdays will be from 20 to 30 minutes.
Today, a solemn event dedicated to the entry of Grodno into a new era of electric transport took place - an autonomous trolleybus is a transitional step towards electric buses.
In 2010, the Grodno trolleybus department faced a problem, the economically active population began to move to the outskirts of the city, which had just begun to be actively built up and developed. At the same time, the contact network did not grow, for that there were problems of the economic plan. Indeed, development required the construction of traction substations, and this is an extremely costly part of the measures to develop trolleybus communication in the city. In 2013, the head of the Department changed, and then an active search for a solution to the problem began: specialists studied the world experience in using electric transport with the prospect of projecting it to Grodno. So the management of the Office came to the Moscow company Drive Electro. The authorities of Grodno and the region joined the project in Belarus and financed the construction of the first five machines. The Belkommunmash enterprise, according to the special terms of reference of the Grodno residents, prepared and finalized the machine for installing the battery module. By the way, Grodno trolleybuses run on Toshiba batteries placed in Drive Electro modules.
At the opening ceremony of the new route, Vladimir Korol, Director General of Belkommunmash Holding Management Company OJSC, noted that Grodno residents are real pioneers who have taken responsibility for the implementation of this project.
An autonomous trolleybus will save 80 million rubles on the construction of a traction substation needed to power the contact network of conventional electric vehicles. The plans of the city leadership to pay maximum attention to the development of urban public electric transport. By the way, the new car costs about 30% more than a conventional trolleybus of the same model, but it saves up to 30% of electricity during operation. On one charge, the car can travel 15-17 kilometers. As the general director of the Russian company Drive Electro Sergey Ivanov noted, the power reserve in the current conditions can be easily increased to 40-50 km, but everything depends on expediency and cost. Now the company is working to reduce the weight and price of drives, while increasing their capacity.
As one of the fifteen drivers selected to work on the new route, Leonid Gretsky, said, in general, the new trolleybuses practically do not differ from their "brothers" in the lineup. They have a slightly smaller capacity, and the dynamics are hardly worse when driving offline. By the way, the batteries are charged right on the move - a few minutes are enough to replenish the charge up to 100%.
At "Belkommunmash" they went to meet the customer and equipped the trolleybuses with automatic pantographs that rise and fall without the participation of the driver at stops public transport during embarkation and disembarkation of passengers. For this, special rod catchers are installed at key points.
It should be noted that Grodno is the first city in Belarus where trolleybuses with increased autonomous running will operate on the routes. The new route will connect the Vishnevets and Devyatovka microdistricts and run along the northeastern half-ring of the bypass highway around Grodno. On the way to one side and the other, four sections are equipped where trolleybuses will be connected to the contact network.
Trolleybus route No. 20. Schedule
Vyshnevets - Devyatovka
Vyshnevets - Khimikov street - Kabyaka street - Post office - supermarket Vyshnevets - Nika store - Kletskov avenue - Rumlyovo - Almi hypermarket - Grodnopromstroy - Polyclinic No. 5 - Magistralnaya street - ZhES No. 19 - Limoges trade enterprise - Dzerzhinsky street - Grodnooblnefteprodukt - DevyatovkaDevyatovka - Vyshnevets
Devyatovka - Pharmacy warehouse - Brikel street - secondary school No. 28 - ZhES No. 19 - Magistralnaya street - Almi hypermarket - GAI - Rumlevsky avenue - Rumlyovo - Kletskov avenue - Nika store - Indurskoe highway - Vishnevets supermarket - ZhES No. 20 - Kabyaka street - Chemists street - VyshnevetsThe project was implemented on the initiative of the Grodno City Executive Committee and the Grodno Trolleybus Administration, together with the Belkommunmash plant. The project is financed by the Grodno Regional Executive Committee and the Promagroleasing company. Today, the length of the contact network of the Grodno trolleybus ranks third after Minsk and Gomel and is about 300 kilometers.
//photo by Roman Oleshko
The grand opening of the new route took place on January 25. Five new cars have replenished the fleet of the Grodno trolleybus department. To launch a new line, employees, the management of the enterprise and the city gathered near the management building. The official part of the event was attended by the Chairman of the Grodno City Executive Committee Mechislav Goi.
Grodno became the first city to launch contactless trolleybuses. Self-driving machines can operate both from a traditional contact network and from batteries. The batteries are charged while the vehicle is moving in the normal trolleybus mode.
Taking into account the passenger traffic in different parts of the city, the department has developed several options for the necessary routes. The pilot was Vishnevets - Devyatovka, which will run trolleybus No. 20. It will run from Yuzhnaya Street through Kabyaka Street, Indurskoe Highway, Kletskov Avenue, a section of the ring highway, Brikel Street to the final station along Dzerzhinsky Street and back.
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Part of the route of the car will look normal - with traditional "horns", and then the automation will remove them and the trolleybuses will continue their journey autonomously.
To implement the project, Belkommunmash produced five machines. Already on January 25 they entered the new route. The site will be serviced by four vehicles. The range of a trolleybus with a full load on a wireless section is about 20 kilometers.
Grodno is the first city in the republic where trolleybuses with increased autonomous running will operate on the routes. The first trolleybus will run on the route on January 26.
The new route No. 20 will connect the Vishnevets and Devyatovka microdistricts and run along the northeastern half-ring of the bypass highway around Grodno.
On the way to one side and the other, four sections are equipped where trolleybuses will be connected to the contact network. The range of the machine with a full load on the wireless section is at least 15 kilometers. At first, four trolleybuses will serve the route on weekdays and weekends.
Vyshnevets - Devyatovka
Vyshnevets - Khimikov street - Kabyaka street - Post office - supermarket Vyshnevets - Nika store - Kletskov avenue - Rumlyovo - Almi hypermarket - Grodnopromstroy - Polyclinic No. 5 - Magistralnaya street - ZhES No. 19 - Limoges trade enterprise - Dzerzhinsky street - Grodnooblnefteprodukt - Devyatovka
Devyatovka - Vyshnevets
Devyatovka - Pharmacy warehouse - Brikel street - secondary school No. 28 - ZhES No. 19 - Magistralnaya street - Almi hypermarket - GAI - Rumlevsky avenue - Rumlyovo - Kletskov avenue - Nika store - Indurskoe highway - Vishnevets supermarket - ZhES No. 20 - Kabyaka street - Chemists street - Vyshnevets
An autonomous trolleybus will save 800 billion non-denominated rubles on the construction of a traction substation needed to power the contact network of conventional electric vehicles. The plans of the city leadership to pay maximum attention to the development of urban public electric transport.
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