Miller Transportation is getting into the trolley-bus game and they want one of the biggest seats at the table: the East Market Street and Frankfort Avenue Trolley Hops. Miller has filed a Federal complaint against TARC which could have far reaching implications for transit in Louisville.
Federal law protects private transportation’s charter business from public interference, but if TARC is found at fault, the agency could lose $12 million in Federal aid along with being barred from operating the trolley hops among other routes. A decision will be made next month on the case, but with record ridership, increasing fares, and service cuts already commonplace, can TARC sustain any more blows?
The Federal law in question has already prompted TARC to suspend shuttles to University of Louisville athletic games and the Kentucky Derby. Besides the legal wranglings, we noticed a Miller Trolley-Bus cruising the streets of downtown Louisville, leaving us with only one word: ugly. The green and yellow box on wheels really is over the top and in our opinion is only barely recognizable as a trolley. What do you all think of the trolley wars going on, the prospects for downtown and Louisville transit, and yes, which trolley is better?
- Transit Authority of River City (Official Site)
- Miller Transportation (Official Site)
- First Friday Trolley Hop (Official Site)
- Frankfort Avenue Trolley Hop (Official Site)
- Bus company challenges TARC over special routes (C-J)
I'd called that a Trolley-like bus instead of a trolley. I'd also co-sign your assessment of it as ugly.
I find both TARC and Miller’s replicas of streetcars as an affront and abhorrent to the sensibilities. If the people will ride these as a novelty, how much more will they ride the real thing as a way of getting around.
This is only trying to recall the “good old days” without recalling the reason why they existed in the first place. Streetcars, as first developed, were to take people from where they were(lived and worked) to where they wanted to be (a destination point, home or job). What we see here is the destination. We drive our cars and park so that we can ride the trolleys. That makes no sense.
Miller should really stop before he turns the public against him. Trying to dismantle our already mangled, barely breathing mass transit system will only infuriate the public, and his quest for greed will ultimately backfire when nobody wants to charter his ugly faux-trolleys or outdated school buses.