Trolleybus 🚎

A trolleybus (or trolley coach) is rendered as a hybrid between a bus and a tram—it has the wheeled, road-based body of a bus but features one or two overhead pantograph poles characteristic of electric-powered public transit. The design typically shows a boxy vehicle similar in size to a standard bus, with visible electrical connections above.

Trolleybuses serve as the practical middle ground in many cities: they run on regular streets like buses but draw power from overhead wires like trams, eliminating the need for internal fuel tanks. People use this emoji when specifically discussing trolleybus systems, which are common in cities across Russia, Eastern Europe, South America, and China. It's more niche than the standard bus emoji but beloved by transit enthusiasts and residents of trolleybus cities.

The trolleybus represents sustainable urban transport and distinctive city infrastructure. It's often confused with the tram emoji, but the key difference is that trolleybuses don't follow fixed tracks—they're flexible vehicles using overhead power lines. This makes the emoji especially relevant for people in cities like Sofia, Prague, or São Paulo.

Approved as part of Unicode Emoji 1.0 in 2015, this emoji fills a gap for transit-focused conversations in regions where trolleybuses are a defining part of the urban landscape.