Grant secures trolleys will go on

Andrew Edwards

The end of summer marks many other endings in Laguna. The festivals

close down, beach crowds thin out and free trolley service is put on

hold until next summer.

Except for this year.

While the festivals are still scheduled to go on hiatus and

vacationers are going back to work, the trolleys are set to keep on

trucking up and down Laguna Canyon Road, officials said. The city has

a grant from the Orange County Transportation Authority to try out a

pilot program that will keep the trolleys on the road on weekends and

holidays.

The OCTA gave the city about $40,000 to run the trolleys after

summer, City Manager Ken Frank said. The city will contribute about

$13,000 to keep the trolleys on the road. The objective of the effort

is to learn whether the trolleys can help ease traffic congestion

beyond the summer months.

“The purpose of this pilot project is to see what we can do and

how successful we can be,” Frank said.

The trolleys will connect the Act V parking lot to three stops in

the Downtown area and Main Beach. Passengers will be able to park and

ride for free.

The project will not conflict with the possible move of the city’s

Corporation Yard to the Act V site, Frank said. The earliest the

Coastal Commission could approve any move would be November, meaning

any actual move could not be made until next fall. There would also

be more than 170 parking spaces at Act V even if the Corporation Yard

was there, Frank said.

Councilwoman Toni Iseman, who wants to keep parking at Act V, is

rooting for the trolleys to succeed.

“If this works, it will be another piece in the traffic and

parking solution,” she said. “I want Act V to be used to a greater

extent than it already is, and there’s no reason we can’t use it in

the winter months also.”

Iseman opposes moving the Corporate Yard to Act V.

Trolley passengers said they think keeping the trolleys active

past the summer is a “good plan.”

“With the amount of people that come and spend their money in

Laguna Beach, I think it would be a great service,” said Jerry Ryer,

a carpenter from Maui, Hawaii who is living in Laguna to work on a

house.

Many people who use the trolleys come from out of town, and Karyn

Urrea, from Torrance, said she and her family enjoy riding the

trolleys and would come into Laguna to ride them.

“We would visit the beach to take advantage of the trolleys,” she

said.

The summer trolley schedule is scheduled to start on Monday and go

on until June 26, when summer service is set to resume. Trolleys are

set to run from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. while in service.

The City Council may modify plans, Iseman said. Council members

will discuss trolley schedules at their Sept. 14 meeting to iron out

details.