A debate over Wellington's trolley buses got electrified last night.

Power was turned off to the city's trolley network last night after the Government was unable to step in and provide the money needed to keep them going.

The end of the iconic buses saw city and regional councillors clash at a meeting.

City Council public transport portfolio leader Sarah Free had unsuccessfully appealed to the regional council to save some of the buses.

She said officers are looking at claiming compensation from the regional council for any road damage resulting in some of the heavier replacements.

Regional councillor Daran Ponter said he took that as an unwelcome threat.

"The order for the buses have already been made, and now your coming in saying if you deploy those buses, we will ticket you. That's what you're saying."

But Free said she's just pointing out the financial implications of the heavier buses.

"They pull in out of bus stops, they sit idling and that softens the tarmac. Those figures haven't yet been ascertained and there is a little bit of debate about what the figure will be."

Ponter then dragged Wellington's botched Island Bay cycleway into the debate.

"If you wanted to put money into the substations for the trolley buses, then you could have taken the $7 million for the Island Bay Cycleway that you blew as a city council."

City council transport strategy and operations portfolio leader Chris Calvi-Freeman said that comment was uncalled for.

"It's an entirely different project with an entirely different funding source and to complicate the issue of trolley buses by seeking to distract with that is not really on"

The famous trolley buses will be released with diesel-electric hybrids which include double-decker buses.

The Transport Minister Phil Twyford looked into the issue but found that it was too costly to reverse the decision.

He said that government policy would require future public transport decisions to have environmental considerations at the fore.