LITTLE ROCK — Six years into the return of streetcars to the downtowns of Little Rock and North Little Rock, riding the trolleys remains a novelty attraction for tourists and young children instead of an alternative to driving for commuters and shoppers.
Empty streetcars are a common complaint from locals about the $29.3 million River Rail, which loops three cars continually day and night through the two downtowns.
The trolleys’ busiest times are when conventions and other downtown events draw plenty of visitors. However, that’s not enough to keep ridership steady.
Through October, according to the latest monthly figures by Central Arkansas Transit Authority, which manages River Rail, the trolleys have carried 94,764 passengers, which is 12,897 riders fewer than the same time a year ago.
In its five full years of operation - excluding its first two months, November-December 2004 - River Rail has averaged 129,370 riders each year, according to CATA. River Rail opened in November 2004, almost 60 years after trolleys had disappeared from Little Rock’s streets.
For the three trolley lines, two streetcars run complete trips weekly of 119 and 132 cycles, respectively, according to CATA’s figures, on the full route that includes about 31/2 miles of track in Little Rock and North Little Rock.
The third streetcar stays on the south side of the Arkansas River, operating solely on an extension opened in February 2007, and making 192 round trips weekly to the Clinton Presidential Center and Heifer International in Little Rock, according to CATA.
An analysis of the passenger numbers shows that with 19,049 trips through October, the 94,764 riders average out to fewer than five passengers per trip. In other words, only about 12 percent of the seats were taken.
If the 46-foot-long, 40-seat trolley cars were full on every trip, River Rail would potentially have carried 761,960 seated riders so far this year - or 902,520 through a full 51 weeks, minus seven holidays when it’s closed.
The image of empty streetcar after empty streetcar is the biggest criticism leveled at River Rail.
Jordan Johnson, a Little Rock public-relations specialist and spokesman for the William J. Clinton Foundation, recently posted on his Facebook and Twitter accounts that he and his family were passed up by a streetcar and about the need for correct change. Adult fares are $1.
“And not a single rider,” one post by Johnson complained.
Facebook friends of Johnson’s followed with such derogatory comments as: “No one rides it - a complete waste of city money to say nothing of impeding traffic.” “That trolley is awful.” And, “I refuse to ride it.”
River Rail’s expense is another issue, especially now as cities and the county finish up budget proposals for 2011. CATA is requesting $935,760 from Little Rock, North Little Rock and Pulaski County - $311,920 each - to operate River Rail next year.
While the trolley system might not be popular with locals, supporters said visitors often ride a streetcar to find their way between a downtown hotel or conference center in either city and the River Market entertainment district or the Clinton library in Little Rock. They could go across the river to North Little Rock’s downtown Argenta district or nearby Verizon Arena and Dickey-Stephens Park.
“What we were trying to do initially was create a circle that connected all that with the hotels and then in doing that it identified some properties that we felt like could be developed,” said Pulaski County Judge Buddy Villines, who along with North Little Rock Mayor Patrick Hays and former Little Rock Mayor Jim Dailey pushed for the two cities to build a trolley line that crossed the Arkansas River and linked the two downtowns.
“And if you look at those properties now, they have been developed. That’s the economic impact.”
Villines said he’s satisfied with the ridership numbers, even though the system isn’t conducive to downtown commuting. River Rail staggers start times among the three trolleys, with the first one starting out at 8:19 a.m.
“It depends on what’s going on downtown and the weather and on so many variables and factors,” Villines said of ridership. “It looks like we’ll break 100,000 riders again this year. So you’re seeing 100,000 people a year on it.”
Johnson even takes his children on the trolleys frequently, he said recently, and he knows of out-of-towners who usually ride River Rail when visiting downtown.
“The trolley provides a great ambience,” Johnson said. “My kids love it. But, there’s always room for improvement. Yes, residents have had issues with some of the trolleys, but overall it’s an asset for the community.”
Being empty most of the time isn’t a reason to say the trolleys are a failure, supporters said.
“There are times I see it without anybody on there,” Villines said. “I also see them when they’re crowded. Transit is like that. It’s like when you see a car. Sometimes there are several people in it, and sometimes you don’t have other people in it.”
Jim McKenzie, executive director of Metroplan, central Arkansas’ planning agency, said it took decades for Interstate 40 to see the traffic jams experienced now during morning and afternoon commutes. In the same respect, mass transit needs time to grow.
“Go out on the freeway at 2 a.m., and it’ll be empty,” McKenzie said. “The trolley, at least that part of it that’s built so far, and from a transportation standpoint, is basically a tourist attraction.”
Putting more commuters on board the trolley system would likely mean having to expand along commuter corridors that would better benefit residents.
Metroplan this month received the green light from the state Highway and Transportation Department to proceed with a feasibility study of new extensions of River Rail, ones that could take the streetcars beyond the downtown core of Little Rock and North Little Rock.
Possibilities that may be looked at in the study, CATA Executive Director Betty Wineland has said, include going south on Little Rock’s Main Street, west on Capitol Avenue or possibly going west from downtown to restore the former Heights/Hillcrest line from the 1940s.
In North Little Rock, the city council agreed early this year to study stretching River Rail north on that city’s Main Street to Pershing Boulevard, just past the North Little Rock High School-West campus.
An earlier feasibility study aimed at extending the trolley to Little Rock National Airport, Adams Field, was halted when it found the economic impact and ridership wouldn’t yet support an airport route.
“What trolley cars, light rail and other fixed-transit services do is they tell the abutting property owners ‘This is a serious, longtime investment that will be moving people past your door,’” McKenzie said. “It’s an incentive for redevelopment. Look at the redevelopment along the line in Little Rock and North Little Rock. It’s a phenomenal success from that standpoint.”
Moses Tucker Real Estate has developed four properties abutting or just off the trolley lines on purpose, developer Jimmy Moses said.
“Someday I believe we will expand it to an employment base and make it more commuter-friendly and used,” said Moses, who added he didn’t know of anyone in his downtown residential properties who commutes to and from work on the trolley. “A tourist component is what it is today. And I accept that.”
The streetcars, if nothing else, draw attention. For instance, when The New York Times featured the new arts district of North Little Rock’s downtown in a travel story this summer, two of the five photos used showed a streetcar. Other national publications have also featured the streetcars.
“I get requests from travel writers from all over who will ask ‘Do you have a picture of your trolley?’” Johnson said.
“And they’re an interesting way to meet people,” he added. “Every time I’ve been on the trolley, there was someone from far away who was here in Arkansas for the first time. It’s interesting to hear their perspectives of how Little Rock is a lot different than they expected, how it has a lot more amenities and is a lot more vibrant than they were expecting.”
Moses hears the compliments, too, from civic leaders in other cities who visit Little Rock because they’re considering a similar trolley system.
“I would estimate I’ve spoken to no less than 20 groups from cities around the country, large and small, who come to Little Rock and look at our downtown and want to know how in the world we put together a rail-transit system like this,” Moses said. “They talk about how fortunate we are and how wonderful it is.
“Yes, there’s the challenge of how do you improve the utilization of it, but the fact that we have it puts us so far ahead of so many other cities,” he added. “That we don’t use it as well as we could is something we could make some headway with if we focused on it.
“My point from all of this is, if we could get more people accustomed to public transit, we’d be a lot better city,” Moses said. “It’s almost vain that we, as a community, still debate whether we should or shouldn’t do this.
“What we should do is debate how to upgrade our public transit,” he continued. “It’s our fault that it’s not operated as it should be.”
Arkansas, Pages 19 on 11/28/2010