After its second meeting, the newly formed Trolley Committee has concluded, based on preliminary findings, that an inner-trolley system is feasible in Herndon.
Earlier this month Mayor Michael O’Reilly brought the concept of a downtown trolley service to the Town Council, saying council members Dennis Husch and Steven Mitchell would be heading a committee to generate further discussion.
Armed with information gathered from Leesburg, Arlington and Alexandria, which have trolley services, council members Husch and Mitchell met with representatives from the Downtown Business Council, the Herndon Dulles Chamber of Commerce and town staff in charge of transportation to form the committee.
During its first meeting, the group talked about running a trolley that would cater to the lunch crowd along the Herndon Parkway and stop at local stores and restaurants.
AFTER BRAINSTORMING, members were tasked with contacting local business owners for feedback and researching possible funding methods, among other things.
At the Feb. 17 meeting, Chris Griffin, representing the Downtown Business Council, said although she tried to contact a majority of the businesses, she only heard back from a handful.
But from those — including Jimmy's Old Town Tavern, the tourism committee and local hotels — she said the response was positive and produced suggestions for use.
"Whatever we do it has to be on a short-time pick up," she said, explaining frequency and consistency concerns were raised. "It has to be specific on time."
Scott Gessay, representing the Herndon Dulles Chamber of Commerce, said the chamber's president and CEO, Eileen Curtis, sent an email out to the Chamber's membership attempting to conduct a survey on the trolley's viability.
Although they only received four responses in the two weeks before the committee reconvened, Gessay said the overall response was supportive.
Gessay said the hotels suggested a service that would travel to restaurants in the evening for weekday patrons, the Air and Space museum on the weekends and possibly to the Woodland Park area on the other side of the Dulles Toll Road.
Husch, who was tasked with speaking to stakeholders of local businesses, said he was able to talk to Gary Rappaport, president and CEO, Rappaport Companies, who owns the Worldgate Shopping Center.
"He thought it was a great idea. He was supportive of it, if it stopped at Worldgate," said Husch. "He did point out though, that if it stopped at Worldgate it would likely [take] people out of Worldgate, but that, in the long run, it would benefit [the shopping center]."
AFTER DISCUSSING interested businesses, the group moved toward possible route configurations and the number of trolleys needed to maintain time consistency.
Suggestions included running a route from the Worldgate shopping center to a number of other major businesses in town such as the K-Mart shopping area, the core downtown businesses, the Food Lion shopping center and back to the Worldgate shopping center.
To make sure the lunch crowd could make it to a restaurant in town, eat lunch and be back within an hour, the committee decided they would need at least two trolleys to run in each direction.
Along with discussing feedback, the group talked about expanded routes, playing with the possibility of a trolley going past the Dulles Toll Road or into the Reston Town Center areas and maybe even a weekend route out to the Air and Space Museum.
In addition, they said they would like to see a route work with the proposed expansion of Rail to Dulles, saying it could operate to the Kiss and Ride drop off.
Because the trolleys are currently proposed to run between the hours of 11 a.m. and 3 p.m., the committee tried to remain focused on the initial, smaller routes.
"This is an internal [trolley] service to a town," said Gessay. "We're talking about a specific nature for a specific need ... if it operates and it's not reliable, it will fail."
MARK DUCEMAN, transportation planner for the town, explained to the committee that after speaking with the Virginia Regional Transportation Authority (VRTA), he learned the town would not be able to operate funding through the organization like the town of Leesburg had.
Because VRTA works with rural areas, and because Loudoun County transportation assisted in establishing the trolley services, Leesburg was able to file for federal funding to offset the costs of running a trolley service to their outlet stores.
Duceman said because Herndon is considered an urban area, it would go against the VRTA’s mission to ask for a grant to assist with funding.
“The town could apply [for funding] and the VRTA could operate,” said Duceman, explaining if the town were to file for and be granted funding, buy trolleys and provide insurance, the VRTA could then run, operate and maintain the trolleys with their staff for $50 an hour.
The two ways Duceman said the town could request funding would be through the Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation (VDRPT) and through the Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality committee (CMAQ).
Duceman said because the deadline has passed to apply for funding through the VDRPT, and the CMAQ deadline is August, the committee will have time to formulate a concrete plan.
Dana Heiberg, senior planner for the town, also suggested looking into funding through Fairfax County, adding they will need to coordinate with the Fairfax Connector to ensure the routes do not interfere with each other, or take away ridership.
Although not ready to immediately purchase a trolley car, because of their cost, Mitchell said the process of applying for grants and working out funding can sometimes take three to five years — a time frame he thinks is too long.
Through his research Mitchell said he talked with a representative from Reston Limousine about possibly using their “buses” during the four-hour time frame, at least until the town could afford to purchase a trolley.
“If we were to buy a trolley then they could run it for us, drive it for us,” he said, explaining they would run and operate the trolleys for $75 an hour. “It is important to get up and running … and to see the viability.”
Mitchell said by using Reston Limousine’s services, they would be able to see how successful the concept was while applying for grants and before losing money on the purchase of trolleys.
“If we buy a trolley and it’s sitting for most of the day, it’s not paying for itself,” said Mitchell, adding they should also consider chartering the trolleys out for events to generate more revenue.
Because the committee would like to see a trolley sooner rather than later, Husch said they would have to ask for “more cost commitment by the town up front that will hopefully only be a temporary expense until grants kick in.”
In addition to discussing possible avenues to purchase a trolley, including buying used trolleys off the Internet, the group discussed if a fee would be charged for riders.
Although they toyed with the idea of a 25-cent fee or even the possibility of using a validation card — received after eating at a restaurant along the route — to earn free ridership, the committee did not come to a conclusion on rider fees.
"Depending on how [riders] use the trolley system — if people start to use it because they don't want to walk two blocks — we could possibly implement a fee," said Mitchell. "It's easier to charge then not charge, than to not charge and then charge."
The group also discussed local store, restaurant and hotel advertising options that would allow brochures to be posted inside the trolley and whether advertisements should be allowed only on the inside, or also the outside of the vehicle.
Heiberg suggested as planning evolved, the group should conduct a survey to determine if a fee should be implemented, and if so, how much money riders are willing to pay.
"It should be determined if a fee will be implemented as a tool to get the ridership we want, or if it will be used for maintenance fees," said Mitchell.
At the end of the meeting Husch recapped on the morning’s discussions saying he would create a preliminary proposal to present to the Town Council at its March 15 work session.
From there the hope is that the council will offer guidance and direction for the committee to take.
“We will let them know that it is viable and we recommend to move forward to establish a trolley service in Herndon,” said Husch.