Visitors Bureau Puts the Brakes on Trolley Company Move

A proposal to move the Buenaventura Trolley Co. to Oxnard ran into a dead end when the Oxnard Convention and Visitors Bureau said it could not subsidize the operation.

“Basically, we told them that we’ve had our funding cut off and we couldn’t help them,” said Millie Norman, the bureau’s interim director.

Last year, the bureau’s annual budget was reduced from $398,000 to $59,000, and the bureau may shut down altogether in 1992, she said.

The trolley company announced this week that it will close its operations in Ventura on Feb. 1 unless the city agrees to grant the company a $48,000 subsidy. On Wednesday, Ventura’s transportation committee recommended against the subsidy.

The Ventura City Council will vote on the subsidy later on this month.

Meanwhile, Diane Madison, owner of the Ojai Trolley Co., said Friday her company is not in financial trouble.

“Our riders are hearing rumors it may stop and are very upset,” Madison said. The single Ojai trolley will continue to make 12 daily loops around the city, six days a week.

Although Madison founded the Buenaventura Trolley Co., she sold it two years ago, she said. Ojai Trolley Co. is in its second year of operation, and support from local advertisers and riders is steadily building, Madison said.

The Ojai Trolley Co. receives an annual subsidy of $28,000 from a federal grant under the Urban Mass Transportation Act. The City Council also required the Ojai Valley Inn and Country Club to contribute $3,100 a year to the trolley as a condition for approval of the club’s major expansion three years ago.