MUCH was written on these pages a few weeks ago in support of an old friend of Bournemouth, the electric trolleybus.

The last trolleybuses ran in Bournemouth in April 1969 with the very last in the UK at Bradford in March 1972.

I expect it will therefore interest many readers to learn that after an absence of over four decades, clean, silent trolleybuses are indeed returning to the United Kingdom.

Last week (w/c July 2), the Transport Secretary Justine Greening confirmed funding for a new public transport project in Leeds.

Crucially the centrepiece of the plan is a state of the art electric trolleybus system, construction of which should start within four years.

Significantly, modern trolleybuses have been selected in preference to the city’s original idea of rail-bound trams.

The new trolley vehicles are, I gather, expected to include off-wire auxiliary power capabilities, providing a level of flexibility quite similar to that of a conventional diesel bus.

When the first sleek new Leeds trolleybus conveys its inaugral passengers, it will become the first new example of its kind to do so in this country since November 1962.

It was back then that a primrose yellow double-deck example proudly displaying its home town coat of arms did so right here in Bournemouth.

This particular vehicle, registered 301LJ, survives as a musuem piece and the possibility that its historic transport significance could take it to Leeds as a special guest in a few years’ time is evidently to be explored.

The new Leeds installation may become a catalyst for modern new trolleybuses across the UK – it started before in Leeds (and Bradford) in 1911!

Will such a comeback extend to Bournemouth? I’m not sure, but never say never.

KEITH BAYNTON, Spetisbury Close, Bournemouth