The campaign “Let’s Preserve Bulgaria’s Trolleybus History” is an initiative of the Public Transport and Infrastructure Association, in cooperation with Stolichen Elektrotransport EAD, to buy back, restore and put into operation historic trolleybuses that are part of the history of Bulgaria’s cities.
With your financial support, we have already managed to buy and move two trolleybuses to Sofia – DAC-Chavdar 317 ETr from the town of Pernik and Skoda 9TrHT from the town of Pazardzhik. Two other trolleybuses – Skoda 14Tr and ZiU-682B have already been bought and moved from Stara Zagora to Sofia by Stolichen Elektrotransport EAD in order to restore them and put them into operation.
At this stage we aim to form a fleet of 5 historic trolleybuses to be bought back, restored and put into operation as moving museum exhibits in a retro line that will run on weekends and holidays and be a tourist attraction in Sofia. Similar tram and trolley attraction lines are part of the daily routine of many cities such as Prague, Vienna, Salzburg, Brussels, Budapest, Moscow, Vancouver, Dayton, etc. With the increasing number of tourists in Sofia, especially those visiting the city on weekends, this is an excellent opportunity for a new and interesting tourist attraction to further increase interest in the capital.
Currently our efforts are focused on buying back these two trolleybuses of historical value – GMC-BBC HR150G – with Inv. No. 152 and Skoda 9TrHT28, which were running in our country or were intended for running in cities in our country.
Once all five trolleybuses are preserved, we will proceed with their phased restoration.
Once restored, the trolleybuses will be put into service as moving museum exhibits in a retro line, that will run on weekends and holidays and be a tourist attraction in Sofia.