City purchases new trolley

The City Council approved the purchase of an additional classic trolley bus at its Dec. 17 meeting, part of an effort to help bolster tourism in a city that is still recovering from Hurricane Sandy.

Though the city already has a classic trolley, the new $230,000 trolley bus will be the city’s first with an open-air design, City Manager Jack Schnirman said. It will be used mainly in the summer months and provide patrons with scenic views as it runs through Long Beach’s business districts. Schnirman said that the city is projecting a 6.2 percent increase in tourism when it rolls out the new trolley in May.

“It is predominantly to be used in the summer for us, when we have much more traffic and when we want to promote public transportation and get folks around the city to participate in different activities going on around the city and patronize the different businesses throughout the city,” Schnirman said.

The city purchased a brand new, 35-foot Classic Trolley Open Oahu Bus from Classic Trolley of Medford, Ore., the lowest qualified bidder, at a cost of $229,960.

The city paid for the bus with $126,652 in funding through a New York State Department of Transportation grant and $103,308 in funding through the city’s Urban Development Grant Fund.

Resident James Lynch, the Long Beach Chamber of Commerce’s financial secretary, said he encouraged the city to add the vehicle to its fleet in an effort to promote tourism throughout the year.

“I go down to Cape May three or four times a year mostly in the winter and people wait on line to take this … it’s almost like taking a carriage ride,” Lynch told the council. “The more things we can get down here to promote tourism is going to be a great thing, and I’m sure we’ll work out the logistics of whether it’s too cold to be used.”