On Thursday, July 20, the Greensboro Transit Agency kicked off its downtown trolley service.
The trolleys are actually four 2009 diesel buses that have been painted to, kind of, sort of, look something like an old trolley.
These buses painted to look like trolleys will provide free rides up and down Elm Street from Carolyn Coleman Way on the south to Fisher Avenue on the north. At both the south and north ends of the route the buses will make a little loop.
At the north end the trolleys will come back up Eugene Street to Smith Street with a stop at LoFi Park. At the southern end of the route the trolleys will turn off South Elm at Hamburger Square and travel down Martin Luther King Jr. Drive to Carolyn Coleman Way and then turn north on to South Elm Street.
The trolleys will operate Thursdays through Saturdays from noon to midnight and Sundays from noon to 10 p.m. With four trolleys operating on a short route, it is estimated that a trolley will be by each stop about every seven minutes, and they will stop at just about every block.
The downtown trolley service is theoretically a Participatory Budgeting project. However, the trolley service is only receiving $90,000 from Participatory Budgeting funds, and $1 million in general fund money (that would be your tax dollars) freed up by the American Rescue Plan funds that were all dumped into the general fund budget, which allowed the Greensboro City Council to spend the money however it wanted without having to follow federal guidelines or financial reporting requirements.
The $1.09 million will fund the trolley project for about six months. The pilot project is scheduled to end in December 2023.
Mayor Nancy Vaughan recently questioned the wisdom of starting the trolley service, since the American Rescue Plan is one-time money and, if the trolley service is successful, money will have to be found to continue the program.
Participatory Budgeting is supposed to fund $100,000 worth of projects in each of the five City Council districts, but the downtown trolley is considered a citywide project not a district project.
Rice-a-Ron.
It figures. Another great fiduciary decision. Thank you very little.
I want free trolley service from Quaker Village tp Friendly SC, too. How about free trolley service on the most traveled business & neighborhoods roads, too? Hmmmmmmm?
Yet another whole lot of nothing. Recruit some GPD officers.
More feel good bs. It’s easier to spend other people’s hard earned monies!
“…one-time money and, if the trolley service is successful, money will have to be found to continue the program.” In our current kinda capitalistic society a “successful” trolley service would be defined as equaling or exceeding one’s investment so that money could be saved or improvements made to the service. It sure doesn’t sound like Mayor Vaughn seems like her idea of “success” meets that goal since she’s thinking they’ll have to find money for the program to continue. Like all government grants or one-time-only funded programs, whether frivolous or life-saving, when the money runs out so does the program. I know from personal experience.
Duke used to have trolley service all over Greensboro. 10c/ride or 3 rides for a quarter. If it were profitable, there would be private trolley or bus service now. govt busing is an extravagant waste of taxpayer money.
Perhaps the old world charm of this idea will increase tourism downtown. More tourists on a free trolley ride equates to more patrons in local restaurants. This in turn will help support the proposed restaurant (prepared food) tax.
If we can’t fill up a city bus every half hour, we need to run one every 7 minutes.
So, the “free ride” service began the same week that I received my tremendously-increased Greensboro/Guilford property tax bill.
You are in the club.
If this is what we have instead of leaf pick up I think I will make my way downtown even less than I already do. I moved here from a much larger city because I did not like the density, traffic and garbage. I also liked it that Greensboro picked up the leaves as well as the garbage. I also liked the many nice trees (which, of course, tend to shed leaves…). I care nothing for minor league sports nor minor league “cultural events” which seem to be what the City Council promotes, along with woke. Maybe it’s time to check out the coast again…
the ‘mamby pamby’ continuation