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 The
Rebirth of the Redlands Trolley
Redlands Trolley: What Goes Around
Comes Around
The rebirth of the Redlands Trolley after a nearly one
hundred year absence was sparked by Councilman Gary George's
wife Ginny. Gary and Ginny were driving past the University
of Redlands one evening and discussing ways to more fully
integrate students into the community. One of the impediments
to a fuller integration seemed to be the lack of transportation
for freshmen and sophomores, so Ginny suggested that if
the city had a trolley, like in the old days, the students
could get downtown and the trolleys would add a reminder
of the history of Redlands. 
Councilmember George then sought approval from the city
council to explore this idea. The next step was the creation
of the Redland Trolley Consortium, a group that met to brainstorm
for ways to make the trolley a reality. The original members
of the consortium who became financial participants in the
trolley project were the Downtown Redlands Business Association
the University of Redlands and the Beaver Medical Group.
They pledged dollars to the project which have helped provide
the "local share" required to receiving federal assistance.
They continue to be community partners in the trolley project.
Assemblyman Bill Leonard was approached for assistance,
but no state funding assistance was forthcoming. It was
at that point that the consortium enlisted the aid of Congressman
Jerry Lewis. With the Congressman's help, the project began
to pick up steam. With assistance from Michelle Kirkoff
at San Bernardino Associated Governments, a local transportation
planning agency, Councilmember George prepared a proposal
for funding assistance from the Federal Transportation Administration.
He also applied for additional funding from the Air Quality
Management District, the state's Petroleum Violation Escrow
Account and the Carl Moyer grant program. All the grants
were written as clean air projects, and the trolleys were
to run on compressed natural gas, an alternative fuel. The
pieces of the puzzle began to fall into place. A large block
of the funding came from the Federal Transportation was
made possible by Congressman Lewis. His efforts provided
several benefits to the citizens of Redlands. To begin with,
the inclusive funding for this project provided money for
the construction of a 1.5 million dollar compressed natural
gas/liquefied natural gas fueling station at the city yard.
Mandates from the Air Quality Management District, specifically
the Rule 1190 series, would have required the construction
of this station with or without the trolley project, so
the city would have shouldered the expense.  Cities
are now required to begin converting their medium and heavy
duty vehicle fleets to clean fuels. We now have many such
vehicles, including three compressed natural gas solid waste
haulers and three additional liquefied natural gas solid
waste haulers on order.The next time you are following one
of these vehicles and it is not belching black diesel smoke,
thank Congressman Lewis. Surrounding cities have to meet
the same requirement, and they are buying fuel at our station,
as is the Redlands Unified School District. The fact that
our station has been constructed means the school district
does not have to build one at local taxpayer expense. Second,
the funding Congressman Lewis achieved for this project
was above and beyond the transportation funding California
would have received that year. Without the efforts of the
congressman, those dollars would have been spent anyway,
but would have been spent in another state! With the help
of City Attorney Dan McHugh and the cooperative attitude
of Durand Rall, CEO of OMNITRANS and his staff, a memorandum
of understanding was negotiated between the City of Redlands
and OMNITRANS. As a result, the trolley project was blended
into the local transportation system. Buying a monthly pass
allows you to transfer freely between the trolleys and the
OMNITRANS buses. In addition, under a special agreement,
trolley fares for seniors are only fifty cents! No general
fund money from the City of Redlands was used for this project,
and if the project continues to operate after a three-year
demonstration period ends, no general fund monies will be
used for future operations. Over three years after Ginny's
original idea, the Redlands Trolleys began to serve Redlands
again in September of 2003. OMNITRANS reports that ridership
on the trolleys is up over ridership on the large buses
that used to run the routes now covered by the trolleys.
In addition, the trolleys have removed those much larger
buses off some of our narrow city streets, and the smaller
trolley units are much easier and much less expensive to
operate.
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