Django Grace brought up a fun idea at the most recent Brattleboro Selectboard meeting – a return to the electric trolley.
Now, I’d advocate for a trolley-monorail hybrid, of course, but the trolley alone is interesting. I like transportation that is fun.
It would be cost prohibitive to get one custom built and installed. Recent trolley projects have costs cities between $4-14 million dollars per mile. There are Federal funds available, but they are calculated on ridership estimates and larger locations would certainly win out over Brattleboro.
What could be done, though, is to build something locally. That’s what Brattleboro did before – we ordered rails , installed them ourselves, built our own trolley car sheds, and hung our own electric wire. Money was raised for this private business venture by issuing stock.
Replica Trolley Cars can be built for about $1 million. Another option would be to buy a used one and restore it.
We could also just get some plans and build it ourselves.
Jobs! Cool ones!
Thousands of people used the trolley each day in Brattleboro. Kids rode it for school picnics, people rode it to work, and there were moonlight excursions and special events at the end of the line. It connected West B with downtown, and downtown with the neighborhoods.
At one point the schedule was “The first car will start from Prospect Hill at 9 o’clock and from West Brattleboro at 9:20, running thereafter on 20 minutes schedule, pass Main street bridge at 10 minutes before the hours, 10 minutes after, and on the half hours.”
The street car operators would announce the streets and major public buildings as they drove along.
The main competitor to a trolley is a bus. They are generally less expensive per mile, but they also need to be replaced more often.
It is unlikely that anyone will be building an electric bus locally, but an electric trolley is within the realm of imagination If we do most of the work ourselves.
