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Lucerne

The trolleybuses built by NAW shaped Lucerne's appearance. Also because they have been pulling trailers since 1998.

The Trolleybus was introduced in Lucerne in 1941/42. At the beginning the new mode of transportation was thought to complete the existing tram and motor bus network and kept rather small dimensions, eventhough it was extended in 1951. This changed in 1959-61, when the inhabitants decided that the two tram lines Luzern Bahnho f -Emmenbrücke and Maihof - Luzern Bahnhof -Kriens should be replaced by trolleybuses. 36 new rigid trolleybuses replaced the tramway. New trolleybus lines followed in the years 1962, 1966 and 1986. And the network grew further due to line extensions in the years 1990, 2004 and 2013. The trolleybus Lucerne is really important for Central Switzerland, which can be seen on the amount of passengers. The trolleybus line 1 transports more passengers than any line of S-Bahn Zentralschweiz.

The trolleybus fleet of Lucerne had several specialities:

Two dual-mode buses converted from diesel-electric motor buses were able to run on trolleybus and motor bus lines between 1941 and 1966.
Service with bus trailers theoretical until 1974, actually until the end of the 1950s. Bus trailers were introduced again in 1998.
In the 1960s and 1970s Lucerne purchased trolleybuses of foreign producers (Büssing, Volvo), whereas most other Swiss cities bought Swiss vehicles.
1998-2013 the only city, which had rigid trolleybuses with and without bus trailers, articulated trolleybuses and from 2006 bi-articulated trolleybuses in service at the same time.

Trolleybus fleet

Numbers	Type	In use	Comments	Preserved vehicles
BVB 11	Rigid trolleybus	1931	Public demonstration in September 1941 before ballot (Viktoriaplatz-Bundesplatz)
16-17	Rigid trolleybus	1941-1966	dual-mode buses, converted from diesel-electric motor buses built in 1939
TL 2	Rigid trolleybus	1941-1942	Vehicle borrowed from Lausanne	TL 2 (ARBL)
18-21	Rigid trolleybus	1942-1972
52-53	Bus trailer	1946-?	From 1949 offically used with motor buses
22-31	Rigid trolleybus	1949-1975	No. 25 used as defrosting vehicle afterwards	25 (vbl-historic)
32-33	Rigid trolleybus	1955-1975
201-217	Rigid trolleybus	1959-1989
218-236	Rigid trolleybus	1960-1989		227 (ARBL)
237-242	Rigid trolleybus	1963-1989	No. 242 from 1991 temporary in the Swiss museum of transport	242 (vbl-historic)
151-164	Articulated trolleybus	1966-1989		162 (ARBL)
165-178	Articulated trolleybus	1975-2004	No. 165, 167-171, 173-177 sold to Burgas (Bulgaria)
181-196	Articulated trolleybus	1987-2012
251-280	Rigid trolleybus	since 1988	No. 260-264, 274, 279 in service, No. 265-266, 268-270, 272-273, 275-276, 278 sold to Valparaíso (Chile), No. 252 driving school and 280 defrosting vehicle
197-200	Articulated trolleybus	1991-2009
301-307	Bus trailer	1998-2014
308-311	Bus trailer	2002-2014
312-316	Bus trailer	since 2005
201^II-208^II	Articulated trolleybus	since 2004
209^II-210^II	Articulated trolleybus	since 2006
231^II-233^II	Bi-articulated trolleybus	since 2006
211^II-226^II	Articulated trolleybus	since 2009
234^II-242^II	Bi-articulated trolleybus	since 2014	RBus design
401-409	Bi-articulated trolleybus	since 2016	RBus design

Note: The trolleybus showed in our logo is modelled after the trolleybus series No. 201-242, which were purchased in 1959-63. Most of those vehicles were in use in Lucerne until the late 1980ies. To of those trolleybuses (No 226 and 227) wers sold to Schaffhausen, where the were in service between 1980 and 1991. This was a rare case of a used trolleybus trade between cities in German-speaking Switzerland. Way more often cities from French-speaking Switzerland bought buses of the German-speaking part (especially Zürich). Nowadays, a vehicle in each livery (Lucerne and Schaffhausen) of the series No. 201-242 is preserved.