Newport Beach : Visitor Bureau Offers Plan to Save Trolleys
The Newport Beach Conference and Visitors Bureau will propose a $100,000 plan to the City Council on Monday to put the Newport Trolley back on track.
“Now it’s up to the council to resume the trolley’s operation,” Edward Zintel, a bureau spokesman, said Friday.
Last month, the council voted to terminate its contract with Arizona-based American Trolley Lines when the popular but expensive trolley system failed to become self-sufficient after almost seven months of operation.
Under the bureau’s plan, $50,000 from a 1% hotel service fee proposal already before the council would be used to subsidize the trolley operation for a year. The bureau would pledge another $50,000 to be raised from trolley charters, advertising revenue and other sources, according to bureau President Jerry King.
In addition, the city would be asked to pick up another $10,000 to $20,000 that would be needed to keep the trolleys running for a year, King said.
The trolley system includes trolleys operating along Coast Highway, on Balboa Peninsula and at Newport Center. Monthly costs averaged $35,000, although passenger fares offset part of that.
The trolley operation began in June, 1986, with a $50,000 grant from the Irvine Co. and a $130,000 subsidy from the city.
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