Landskrona, the only Swedish city with a trolleybus network: 3 new Solaris Trollino coming

Good news for the trolleybus world come from Landskrona, a town in southern Sweden of about 30,000 inhabitants and the only one with a trolleybus system in Sweden, active since 27 September 2003. It is a small network, just 3.4 km long, but important for the town’s mobility.

The trolleybus line 3 connects the city centre (Skeppsbron) with the railway station. The line runs in nine minutes, at peak times every six to eight minutes; the service runs from 5.05 a.m., with the first departure from the centre, until 0.54 a.m., with an extension until 2.21 a.m. on Saturday night. Two vehicles are usually deployed for the entire service time, three during peak hours.

Landskrona, the only Swedish city with a trolleybus network

After the ‘retirement’ in 2022 of vehicle 6992 (nicknamed Elvira), the first of the three Trollino trolleybuses purchased in 2003, and despite some misgivings about maintaining the trolleybus service, the regional transport authority Skånetrafiken, immediately thought about the future; on the occasion of the trolleybus line’s 20th anniversary in 2023, it announced the purchase of three new trolleybuses and assigned the management of local public transport to Keolis Group from December 2024.

Keolis will manage the five lines of the Landskrona network, including the trolleybus line, and the four other lines served by electric buses supplied by BYD, for 10 years, with a view to fully sustainable mobility.

The trolleybus model chosen is the Solaris Trollino IV, powered by Skoda, equipped with traction batteries for off-wire running and state-of-the-art diagnostics with the possibility of extending its use to non-electrified routes. The first of the three vehicles is ready and undergoing tests on the Plzen (Czech Republic) trolleybus network.

The vehicles, equipped with a bright green livery, have received serial numbers 1891 to 1893.

Trolleybus No. 6994 from 2013, the newest of the current fleet and already equipped with traction batteries, will be kept in operation.

by Stefano Alfano