by David Chapman
Staff Writer
The first official day of fall might not be until Sept. 22, but with children and college students back in the classroom, another summer reminder ends Labor Day with the final run of the Beaches Trolley service.
The second-year service might be concluding its 15-week, 3-days a week run, but early reports have shown strong interest levels.
“We feel comfortable about the numbers,” said Mike Miller, JTA spokesman. “It’s exceeded our forecasts.”
Miller said the service has averaged 1,343 riders a weekend thus far this year. However, those ridership numbers are down from its first year when the service ran for 10 weeks and had more than 32,000 rides — far exceeding JTA’s 14,000 rider expectation.
While still popular, Miller said the decline in riders this year could be attributed to a number of things including the introduction of a fee (50 cents per ride, up from no cost in the first year), the extended route or simply the novelty factor declining.
The future — either a full-time service or summer service — isn’t yet known.
A Beaches Trolley Task force was created last year — it was composed of Beaches business owners and City Council members Art Graham and Kevin Hyde — for the purpose of finding funds for the service. The fees, along with sponsorship and funds from various sources, helped secure its second year.
With the down economy and Graham, one of the service’s most ardent supporters, no longer on Council next year, there could again be funding questions. In terms of leadership on the issue, Miller believes Graham and others have laid the groundwork with business owners to move forward regardless.
Kurtis Loftus, owner of Jacksonville Beach-based advertising and public relations firm The Kurtis Group, was one of the business owners instrumental in seeing the service brought back a second year. He’d like to see it return on a permanent basis.
“I love seeing it out here and having it at the beach,” said Loftus. “It’s just a cool way to get around. Before the service, I don’t think many people thought of it as a mode of transportation here. But, it just fits.”
Loftus said numerous business owners have been encouraged by the service and its popularity led to more requests for Trolley route maps.
Moving forward, Miller said some potential changes could be made.
Temporary advertising for the exterior of the trolleys was a challenge and wasn’t available due to time constraints this past year, he said, and could be a potential funding source moving ahead.
Route tweaks — the current route goes from the South Beach Parkway Shopping Center to the Atlantic Village Shopping Center, both along First and Third streets — could happen depending on final ridership numbers. An extended route could also be looked at, along with the necessity of all stops to ensure maximum efficiency.
Final numbers won’t be available until after Labor Day, but the numbers, and strong rider feedback, are encouraging.
“I think the program is still going very well,” said Miller. “We get lots of positive comments on it.”
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