MATA chief makes case for new trolleys

Board will study plan for replica vehicles

The MATA board on Monday lobbed so many questions about a new plan to replace the city’s old trolleys with new ones that board members and staff agreed to devote much of an upcoming board retreat to the issue.

Last week, Memphis Area Transit Authority president Ron Garrison revealed his agency had changed directions on how to get trolleys running again Downtown and along Madison east to Cleveland.

Pursuing repairs to the old trolleys would take too long and be too expensive to meet safety requirements, he said. Now the MATA staff wants to purchase 17 to 19 new trolleys made to look like vintage vehicles.

Mayor A C Wharton included $32.2 million for the new trolleys in his proposed five-year capital improvement budget. Eighty percent, or $25.7 million, of that would come from federal matching funds. Wharton’s plan includes $11.3 million for fiscal 2016.

The system’s trolley

service — along Main, the Riverside Loop and the Madison Line — has been shut down for 10 months. The action came after two electrical fires destroyed vintage Melbourne trolleys, the first on Nov. 4, 2013, and the second on April 7, 2014.

Garrison now wants to sell 10-15 of the old trolleys.

“If our trolleys are so unrepairable, why would anybody else want to buy them?” board member John Vergos asked Garrison.

“We don’t know that they would,” Garrison said.

But the new vintage replicas, he said, would “have all the newer equipment on them, and they would be easier to maintain, much more reliable, much safer and more cost effective for running the service.”

“Who is the safety regulating body for trolleys?” Vergos asked.

“For us, it’s TDOT (Tennessee Department of Transportation),” Garrison said.

Garrison also told the board that the staff wants to buy as soon as possible 20 new and used buses designed to look like trolleys. They will run along the trolley routes until the rail trolleys return to service. The trolley buses will cost about $140,000 each.

Garrison has said that new vintage replica trolleys could be built for Memphis and in service as soon as 2017.

Despite now wanting to buy new trolleys, the MATA staff still recommended the board approve the repair of four old trolley trucks — the vehicle’s underside.

The four trolley trucks would be used with just two trolleys.

A resolution awarded the company ORX $81,984 to refurbish or repair four Melbourne trolley trucks.

Earlier this month, MATA started operating green hybrid transit buses along the trolley lines.