New Haven Independent: Plan Floated To Jolt The Electric Trolley

Plan Floated To Jolt The Electric Trolley

by Allan Appel | July 24, 2007 12:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (15)

Ridership’s down. And the main source of cash — from the Shartenberg parking lot — is about to disappear. So city traffic chief Mike Piscitelli has a new plan to recharge downtown’s electric trolleys.

Piscitelli presented the plan at last week’s City Plan Commission meeting. He asked for an amendment to the city’s code of ordinances that pertains to private parking lots and garages.

Three-quarters of the trolley’s operational income comes from the Shartenberg lot, which is slated to become the site of a 31-story tower.

“Instead of relying on income solely from parking fees at Shartenberg, we would like to propose a change that would spread the payment for the trolley service among all the parking sites in the city,” he said. In addition, those fees would create a larger fund to support a whole range of alternatives like biking and other environmentally friendly transportation projects in the city. The funding change would be occasioned also by a new route to promote ridership.

In a brief email interview after his appearance, Piscitelli (pictured at the hearing) provided further details:

NHI: What are the major changes in the loop of the trolleys?
MP: Whereas the current downtown loop operates every 15 minutes, the proposed new loop will be a Union Station loop and operate every 10 minutes. The proposed new route covers Union Station, Chapel Street, and also the medical district. Both Union Station and the medical district are major destinations with a fair amount of transient visitors.
NHI: Why the change from 15 down to 10 minutes.
MP: One reason the service might not be being used as much as we hope is the 15-minute headway on the current route. Our sense has been that many people are simply walking to their destination. The proposed new route spans Route 34, which is less attractive for pedestrians; and Union Station and the medical district are places a lot of people are going. The route will be clear and focus on major points of interest.
NHI: Do you have the statistics on ridership over the last years?
MP: In 2003, when the service began, it was about 40,000 for the year. In 2004 and 2005 it grew and held at about 77,000; in 2006, it declined to 58,000; and the figures for this year are 20,000 through the first four months.
NHI: What is the operational budget for the trolleys, and does all of it come from Shartenberg income at present?
MP: The entire trolley budget is $350,000, and 76 percent, or about $240,000 comes from Shartenberg.
NHI: Was your request spurred by the upcoming apparent disappearance of that income?
MP: That, plus ridership on the trolley route has been declining steadily, so we were looking both to increase ridership and to stabilize the funding.
NHI: The money in this new transportation fund will operate the trolleys and what else?
MP: Any balance in the fund can be used only for the following purposes: transit services, pedestrian safety improvements, traffic calming, bicycle safety improvements, programs designed to reduce vehicle miles traveled and transit-oriented development. It’s intended to match the department’s mission, to the extent we can raise sufficient revenue for the trolleys first.

At the City Plan Commission hearing, commissioners were very favorablly disposed to Piscitelli’s proposal, with Roland Lemar offering particular praise. The amendment to the ordinance passed unanimously. However it still needs Board of Aldermen approval. If approved, the trolleys and the transportation fund thus created would be supported through fees from across all of the licensed parking garages and lots in the downtown. These, according to Piscitelli, are mainly operated by LAZ, ProPark, and the New Haven Parking Authority.

The loop change would also not be immediate, but would be inaugurated through a process implemented by the Greater New Haven Transit District.

Share this story: digg / newsvine / facebook

Comments

Posted by: Gary Doyens | July 24, 2007 2:44 PM

Why maintain a service people are disinclined to use? Spreading $240,000 to the other parking facilities will raise the rates, in effect tax parkers in those garages, to maintain a service fewer and fewer people are using. This is what is wrong with City Hall -- once they launch a program, it never dies even when it's obvious people don't want to use it. Is there no end, no shred of decency left for taxpayers? They just raised parking fines and fees by 25% -- is that not enough?

Posted by: leadbelly | July 24, 2007 2:47 PM

Id ride the trolley all the time if it went somewhere. why cant it be more like the yale shuttle, except or all of us?

Posted by: nfjanette | July 24, 2007 4:57 PM

CT Transit already runs a loop to Union Station. We should be working toward requiring the buses to use electric or other alternative low pollution technology.

Gary, leaving things in hands of "people" has resulted in a massive proportion of one-person auto use that has had profound negative impact on everything from national political policy to global warming. We need a public policy that encourages the use of public transportation - when possible and appropriate - and discourages the use of private vehicles. Expensive parking meters and free downtown public transportation would be one such approach.

Posted by: East Rockette | July 24, 2007 4:57 PM

Agreed, Leadbelly. Funny, I tried to ride the trolley the other day with a couple of visitors from out of town. We'd planned our trip around it, walking downtown, spending good money there, then using the trolley to get back to the house in time to get to the train station. We were turned away because the second-youngest member of our party was riding a (very small) bike, and apparently it's "against the law to carry bikes on the trolley," said the driver (Win? Wynn?). The trolley was, at the time, empty.

Other times I've been told to fold up my stroller before I get on -- which is totally reasonable and I'd do it if the trolley were full -- even once when I had a sleeping baby in it. Needless to say, as soon as we actually board the trolley, we're the only people on it.

So yeah, I'd ride it more if they'd let me! Unfortunately I'm usually travelling with small people on small wheels.

Posted by: Your Tax Dollars at Work | July 24, 2007 7:47 PM

Why not sell the "trolleys" for a dollar to some non profit which might get a grant from a foundation in order to use the trolleys for another purpose?

Posted by: leadbelly | July 24, 2007 8:51 PM

i like your thinking your tax dollars, but.. maybe instead we can sell them for a dollar apiece to the becker gang, then they can use them for the affordable housing they didn't have to build on shartenberg. then the city can subsidize the trolley projects at a cost of $19.5 million a year. then the city housing authority can buy a two family house in east rock, tear it down and make it a parking lot for the trolleys.
just make the damned trolleys go someplace you idiots.

Posted by: Bill Saunders | July 24, 2007 9:23 PM

I met a bloke from New Zealand last month who came to Yale for the first Summer Semester to study the first 'planned' city (at his own expense,for fun). He thought the unridden trolleys to nowhere were a complete joke.

He did have a great, money-making scheme, however.

Since we have no tours of our great, historical city, outfit a trolley or two for sight-seeing junkets -- East Rock, West Rock, Wooster Square, Amistad, Lighthouse Park -- charge a reasonable fee, and make it a mandatory part of Freshman Orientation at Yale, as well as marketing the service to visitors at large. Coordinate the package with some restauranting and imbibing and it would make for a nice little welcome wagon.

Posted by: Ned | July 25, 2007 10:01 AM

I never see anyone on the tacky "trolley". As for sightseeing at East Rock Park, I would hesitate to send anyone there, as the place is basically a garbage dump, (love the new plywood door on the Soldiers and Sailors monument!). The second to last time I was there, foolishly trying to enjoy some nature while blocking out the visual blight, and the sound of ghetto blasters, I saw three "youths" with their pit bull and an (air?)rifle walking through the woods. How about we pack the trolley full of delinquents and their parents and drive it off the Qbridge into the harbor?

Posted by: charlie | July 25, 2007 11:28 AM

Just run it in a loop from Union Station to Downtown and you'd be fine. There's plenty of demand there. CT Transit can use their shuttle buses to improve service along other corridors.

Posted by: Gary Doyens | July 25, 2007 12:01 PM

Kill the trolley. When I go downtown, I park in the garage and walk. Since I can't take the trolley from my house to downtown, what's the point? You don't need the trolley to get around downtown. It's a short walk to Audobon, short walk to Broadway and of course, short walks to Crown, Chapel, College and Temple plus you get to stick your head in all those little shops and restaurants you would normally ride by.

NFJeneatte - I think it's great to encourage public transportation. But that transportation has to go somewhere and has to be of service or people won't ride it. If nobody is riding the trolley, it's because it has no value. Just making it available and funding it to the tune $350K a year is just silly. Kill it and since nobody in City Hall from the mayor to the Alders can bring themselves to cut spending and give us tax relief, use the money to market the transit service so more people will use that.

Posted by: Bill Saunders | July 25, 2007 6:12 PM

Ned,

Did you just advocate killing entire families?

Posted by: Scott Mercer | July 25, 2007 6:44 PM

This is not a trolley. It is an electric bus. A bus that happens to be in the shape of a vintage trolley car.

A trolley runs on overhead power which is gathered by a pantograph or a trolley pole. So called because it "trolls" for power from the electric power line above.

Get it right.

Posted by: Ned | July 26, 2007 8:12 AM

Mr. Saunders, I should have been more specific: pack the trolley full of delinquent children and their parents, and people who can't tell the difference between farce and reality, and then drive the trolley off of the Q bridge into the harbor...

New Haven Independent

Plan Floated To Jolt The Electric Trolley

Comments

Sorry, Comments are closed for this entry

Sections

Neighborhood News

Special Sections

Legal Notices

Some Favorite Sites

Government/ Community Links

Legal Notices

Flyerboard

Sponsors

N.H.I. Site Design & Development

NHI Store

News Feed