What's the advantage of Trams over Trolleybuses?

[rettter3]

See above

[Nowayim[Crazy]]

No need to wait for snowplow in winter

[Fiend]

They should be more efficient. Not sure whether they actually are in-game though.

[rettter3]

Originally posted by Fiend:

They should be more efficient. Not sure whether they actually are in-game though.

Yeah, I also wondered, because when looking at the raw stats, they should be rather equal...

[bballjo]

Trams can have dedicated infrastructure, trolleys have to be part of the normal road system and it's congestion areas...you have to plan trams carefully to make use of it, but that alone makes them better than trolleys IMO.

[Silent_Shadow]

Performance wise, Trolley Buses are somewhat ahead, but only up to a certain volume.

• Trolley Buses are 10-20 km/hr faster on average, and they are also slightly more energy efficient (a few kW less) provided you can keep them from stopping constantly at intersections (the update may change this, for now engine power determines cruising power needed).
  
• Trolley Bus vehicles are also typically cheaper to buy for a given capacity.
  
• Trams can be combined into a single compact, high capacity "train". This makes them better for dense population areas.
  
• Trams never worry about snow, which is nice for reliability (speed won't change, which means no more missed needs/jobs from '4 hr in vehicle' or '1 hr waiting' timeouts).
  
• Neither Trolley Buses nor Trams care about the rain nor night.
  
• Trams are unlikely to compete with any other vehicle due to their track typically not being designed for freight use. This makes them resilient to population growth; the only traffic they'll see is extra trams as the city they service grows, whereas Trolley Buses need to compete with increasing numbers of trucks supplying shops.
  
• Trolley Buses will slow down personal cars. This can be a good or bad thing, but typically it is a bad thing.

Price wise, their infrastructure is roughly equal, but the advantages vary a bit:

• Two electrified rail tracks cost almost the same as a trolley bus road (both have two lanes/tracks).
  
• Tram track can be built with one track for half the price of trolley bus roads (and half the capacity). This makes trams a bit more flexible.
  
• Trolley Buses only get one station, which is compact and small. Nice for small populations, but unable to handle a lot of passengers due to a lack of slots. Trams get the train passenger stations, which use a lot of space but can handle large amounts of people.
  
• The train depot is much more expensive, but you can use it for any type of train, whereas the trolley bus depot can only service trolley buses (and then only on its connected network).

Basically, unless you are planning on building a dense, high population city, you are probably better off with trolley buses. Just keep their vulnerability to snow in mind.