On Saturday 30 November 2024, Japan’s last trolleybus system ceased operation on the 3.7 km Murodo-Daikanbo line in the Japanese Alps. This line runs entirely underground in a tunnel, with a section in the middle working as a passing loop in order to allow vehicles to meet.
The line was opened in 1996 as a trolleybus connection as part of a tourist route through the Alps, which until a few years ago also included the trolleybus line to Kurobe Dam. Both lines have now been converted to battery-electric buses. The battery buses will start operating in Murodo on 15 April 2025, by which time the overhead lines should have been largely removed.
Whether and in what form one of the trolleybuses will be preserved as a monument, similar to Kurobe Dam, has not yet been decided. A special timetable was in place on the last day of operation and the vehicles were specially marked. Until the end of operation, eight solo coaches were used, which were originally supplied by Mitsubishi Fuso and Osaka Sharyo in 1995/96. As a rule, they travelled in columns of several vehicles one behind the other, as the predominantly single-track route did not permit any other form of operation.
