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The trolleybus isn't operational in England anymore but in other European countries such as Athens, Budapest and Moscow it is still a very popular way to get out and about.
The Trolleybus has a number of advantages. It is an excellent choice for climbing steep hills, being much better at this than equivalent buses running on diesel and its rubber tyres have much more 'stickability' to the road surfaces than steel rails which are often the alternative. In America, the trolleybus is a much loved fixture in both San Francisco and Seattle and visitors to these cities expect to see them running. As such they continue to use trolleybuses for transport in these cities.
However they do also have some disadvantages. Trolleybuses do occasionally derail and this then means the bus will be stranded without power until it can be got back on to the wires it runs on. For this reason, some trolleybus systems, such as those in San Francisco, have put battery packs on their buses to allow them to drive for a short distance away from the wires.
There have also been a very few power lines created for the trolleybus which means that their use was very limited. This also means that, were they to be used in the future as a more environmentally friendly form of transport, significant numbers of lines would be required. However, this is fairly quick and cost effective to do.
From an aesthetic point of view, there has also been criticism that the power lines are 'a ugly blot on the landscape'.