The extra costs associated with the wire network and the difficulty of changing the buses’ routes were the main factors in this great decision.
Trolley buses cause backlogs when they brake down because they cannot overtake a broken-down bus. The trolley buses just stake-up behind the broken-down bus because they cannot overtake.
I have been trapped on a diesel express bus this way commuting to work many times. Central Wellington grinds to halt when one trolley bus breaks-down.
The 50-year-old power system would need upgrading soon costing “tens of millions of dollars,” and maintaining the 160 kilometres of wires and 15 substations costs $6m a year. The one-off cost of dismantling this network is cheaper than this!
Trolley bases are a killer green technology: drivers have been killed while standing on the road behind the bus reconnected the arms on the top of the bus to the overhead wires. These arms disconnect frequently, and have even hit people on the side of the road.
Wellington is earthquake prone. Having public transport run off a single electric power source connected to overhead wires is fool hardy.
I grew up in a small country town. I have none of the obsessions that big-city folk and the inner-city green voters, in particular, have with buses.
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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