Trolley Carries Hopes of Ventura’s Businesses

For the first time in three years, an old-fashioned trolley car rolled through the streets of Ventura Friday, carrying with it the hopes of a watchful city business community predicting a boon in commerce and tourism.

“I think this is going to be great for tourism in Ventura,” said Monty Clark, Ventura Chamber of Commerce president-elect, before hopping aboard for an inaugural ride early Friday.

“People don’t know Ventura, they really don’t know what Ventura has to offer,” Clark said. “We need to show Ventura off. We need to bring people off the freeway.”

Mayor Tom Buford agreed. “We wanted to give people something to do when they come here, and some sign that we want them here and we want them to come back--and this does all of that.”

But business leaders and city officials who took the inaugural ride were not the only ones hailing the new service. Once the trolley opened to the public at 10 a.m. and found a few passengers, the good words continued to flow.

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“I feel like I’m in Disneyland,” said an enthusiastic Lydia Allaniz, a 31-year-old Ventura resident riding “just for fun.”

But, of course, the going was slow as the forest-green trolley started its first run. The bell-ringing vehicle--which resembles a San Francisco cable car, except it’s gas-powered and travels on wheels--made no pickups until about halfway through its route. At City Hall the first three passengers--including Allaniz--stepped onto the trolley.

Climbing the entrance steps with a blue balloon in hand was 6-year-old Jimmy Biselli of Lancaster, the very first rider to board.

“I like riding rides. . . . I like the seats,” he said later, referring to the authentic-looking, polished wooden bench seats.

His mother, Esther Biselli 35, said she was raised in Ventura and already knew and loved the city. She said she saw the trolley as an ideal way to show her son the city while exposing him to its history.

“This is a great way to show him all the exciting things that Ventura has in a fun way,” she said over the sound of the trolley conductor talking through a microphone about historical, business and entertainment points of interest.

The trolley seats 22 and runs from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. seven days a week. It continually shuffles passengers between the harbor, the pier and downtown, making 10 planned stops in all, though it can be hailed from the street. Organizers said they are hoping to “unify” the city by shuttling passengers between the city’s most popular tourist and downtown business areas, which unfortunately are miles apart.

“Ventura has a lot of diverse amenities,” said Debbie Solomon, public affairs coordinator for Ventura, who helped organize the trolley service to better accommodate the city’s 2 million annual visitors. “There’s a real need to enhance our visitor circulation because of the way those areas are spread out.”

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The trolley is privately owned by contractor Diana Madison and Associates, who operated the trolley in Ojai until earlier this year when Ojai replaced the vehicle with a new propane gas-powered trolley.

The last trolleys to rumble through the streets of Ventura left town in 1991 for a new home in Palm Springs. The Buenaventura Trolley Co. ran two colorful trolleys from 1988 to 1991 but became plagued with debts. The Ventura City Council rejected a proposal to subsidize the trolleys in 1991, and no other group came forward to provide help. Although ridership at the time was increasing, the trolleys were only 23% full during 1989-90.

But Buford said there’s “a little bit stronger spirit now” and “the business community now feels responsible to work with the city as a team” and vice versa.

Madison pays for running the service through advertisements presented on the trolley’s sides and through the full-day fares. But interested Ventura merchants, who have been pushing to bring back a trolley, pitched in with a $5,000 subsidy from the Downtown Business Assn. and the Ventura Harbor Village Merchant Assn. The subsidy essentially pays for the trolley’s insurance, said Julie Amendola, marketing director of Ventura Harbor Village.

The trolley service will run until March 30, 1995. By April 1, Solomon said, the city hopes to buy its own trolley with the help of a $76,996 federal grant and bid it out to a private operator who would manage the service.

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Solomon said she expected few riders on the first day. But she predicted that media exposure and about 60,000 visitors flooding Ventura for the July 4 holiday weekend to bring full loads of passengers onto the trolley.

“I think it’s going to be spectacular over the holiday weekend and on the Fourth of July,” she said. “I think it’s going to be packed.”

Jeffrey Marlette, 32, of Canoga Park was sightseeing in Ventura Friday when he and his family stumbled upon the trolley. Marlette, his wife Teresa, 28, and his three young daughters were the second group to jump on the car.

“I’d taken a trip on it about four years ago. I guess it stopped running for awhile, and this morning when we eating breakfast at Denny’s we saw it running so we went to the Visitor’s Bureau and got the schedule,” Marlette said.

Teresa Marlette said the trolley gives her husband a chance to see the sights he would normally miss as he drove his family around town.

“I like to come (to Ventura) because it’s kind of laid-back quiet, a lot more quiet than Los Angeles,” she said, peering out the large trolley windows as her 1-year-old daughter, Laurin, slept soundly in her arms.

After the Marlettes, Kathleen Ninneman, 45, of Ventura stopped the trolley and queried the trolley conductor: “Is this going to the harbor?”

The conductor said yes, and Ninneman was on her way.