Grosse Pointe starts free trolley along 3 miles of Kercheval.

**bailey** · August-08-14, 09:49 AM

Beginning FRIDAY, a NEW TROLLEY in Grosse Pointe will begin service, running along Kercheval between Moross in Grosse Pointe Farms to Wayburn in Grosse Pointe Park with several stops in between!
The Trolley runs from 5 p.m. to 1 a.m. on Friday and Saturday evenings, with several marked stops along Kercheval, including in The Hill and in The Village. Children under 17 must be accompanied by a parent. There is NO charge, with funding for the project coming from the Manoogian Foundation, the GP Chamber of Commerce and several business communities.

..seems like M-1 isn't the only 3 mile privately funded parking shuttle trolley around! And just like M-1 the route is already served by buses...so here's to silly redundancy for the sake of delicate suburbanites' fears of having to next to poors on a bus.

/sarc

**Wings** · August-08-14, 10:16 AM

Wow 5 p.m. to 1 a.m only on Fridays and Saturdays? That seems a bit silly.

**professorscott** · August-08-14, 10:17 AM

Originally Posted by bailey

..seems like M-1 isn't the only 3 mile privately funded parking shuttle trolley around! And just like M-1 the route is already served by buses...so here's to silly redundancy for the sake of delicate suburbanites' fears of having to next to poors on a bus.

/sarc

Well, it's only partly redundant, first of all. I don't know what the service frequency will be, but Harper only has a SMART bus every 40 minutes weekday evenings and every 60 minutes on Saturday. Also, the SMART buses don't run late at night, which the trolley will. Also, lots of people don't carry cash, which you would need to ride SMART but you won't need for the trolley since it's free.

Now let's talk about the M-1 route being "already served by buses". The rush-hour-only, weekday-only SMART buses, sure. That's six hours or so per weekday and not at all on weekends. If we're talking DDOT, Woodward [[and all of the other streets) are served mostly theoretically, as even the Mayor admits.

**Hypestyles** · August-08-14, 10:28 AM

how do you get a job as a trolley driver?

**aoife** · August-08-14, 10:37 AM

Originally Posted by Wings

Wow 5 p.m. to 1 a.m only on Fridays and Saturdays? That seems a bit silly.

Why is it silly? It is meant to ferry people between the three business districts on the busiest bar/restaurant nights of the week, not to provide normal public transportation. Grosse Pointers love to drink. If this will keep them off the road while hopping between destinations then I am all for it.

**mtburb** · August-08-14, 11:42 AM

Here's a picture of the new trolley. This was not Photoshopped in any way.

**Honky Tonk** · August-08-14, 12:46 PM

Originally Posted by mtburb

Here's a picture of the new trolley. This was not Photoshopped in any way.

The air cushioning should give it a nice smooth ride.

**Danny** · August-08-14, 03:43 PM

Originally Posted by Wings

Wow 5 p.m. to 1 a.m only on Fridays and Saturdays? That seems a bit silly.

This means that those folks in 5 Richvilles are planning to opt out SMART buses and D-DOT.

**Mackinaw** · August-08-14, 03:46 PM

Originally Posted by Danny

This means that those folks in 5 Richvilles are planning to opt out SMART buses and D-DOT.

Absolutely not.

**Detroitnerd** · August-08-14, 04:28 PM

Originally Posted by Mackinaw

Absolutely not.

This is ridiculous. This is not going to be a trolley or rail-based at all. It's most certainly a bus if anything at all ...

**Cliffy** · August-08-14, 04:52 PM

They do this in Huntington Woods and Pleasant Ridge too for events. Nothing new. Just a bus.

**Danny** · August-08-14, 09:50 PM

Originally Posted by Mackinaw

Absolutely not.

They can and they will. All it needs to a people's vote just like those folks in Facist Livonia.

**Dan Wesson** · August-09-14, 10:00 AM

How many bars, oops, Bistro's up and down that stretch? Could be fun...

**Dan Wesson** · August-09-14, 10:29 AM

Originally Posted by Danny

They can and they will. All it needs to a people's vote just like those folks in Facist Livonia.

What is your definition of Facist [[sic)?

**Zacha341** · August-09-14, 10:41 AM

It did not need to be Photoshoped -- it looks like a vector digital image...

...!

Originally Posted by mtburb

Here's a picture of the new trolley. This was not Photoshopped in any way.

**Danny** · August-09-14, 10:47 AM

Originally Posted by Dan Wesson

What is your definition of Facist [[sic)?

It's when corporations and rich folks is government by the people's national socialist vote.

**wolverine** · August-09-14, 10:48 AM

Originally Posted by Wings

Wow 5 p.m. to 1 a.m only on Fridays and Saturdays? That seems a bit silly.

Why? Do you not understand the intent?

**Dan Wesson** · August-09-14, 11:32 AM

Originally Posted by Danny

It's when corporations and rich folks is government by the people's national socialist vote.

I get it now, a Pseudo Socialist Democratic Fascist Oligarchy.

**EastsideAl** · August-09-14, 12:20 PM

This is almost certainly driven by the Red Crown folks and especially the brewery folks in GP Park, along with the Cotton family, as a way to get more Grosse Pointers to come down their way. Although I'm sure the Dirty Dog and other places on the rather remote Hill aren't unhappy about it either.

Of course they are going to face the age-old traditional problem of all such businesses in GP, that Pointers are mostly older, settled, stay-at-home folks.

I wonder if they'll let us Detroiters [[or, more to the point, those of us who are "Detroiters") ride the bus for free from GPP deeper into Grosse Pointe? Given the general air of hostility being presented by the GP Park merchants and the Cottons to Detroit and Detroiters and, most pointedly, to "Detroiters."

**Hermod** · August-09-14, 01:04 PM

Originally Posted by Dan Wesson

What is your definition of Facist [[sic)?

Anybody that you don't like.

**Hermod** · August-09-14, 01:06 PM

Originally Posted by Detroitnerd

This is ridiculous. This is not going to be a trolley or rail-based at all. It's most certainly a bus if anything at all ...

Something like this?

Attachment 24129

**Hermod** · August-09-14, 01:25 PM

The Ft Lauderdale Sun Trolley

Attachment 24130

**Huggybear** · August-10-14, 07:02 AM

Originally Posted by bailey

..seems like M-1 isn't the only 3 mile privately funded parking shuttle trolley around! And just like M-1 the route is already served by buses...so here's to silly redundancy for the sake of delicate suburbanites' fears of having to next to poors on a bus.

/sarc

Here's the real question: can the bus make the roundabout at the blocked off southern end of Kercheval?

HB

**bailey** · August-10-14, 07:19 AM

Originally Posted by Huggybear

Here's the real question: can the bus make the roundabout at the blocked off southern end of Kercheval?

HB

Yup. Appeared to do it quite easily. It's almost as if it was designed to be a traffic circle..

**Mackinaw** · August-10-14, 11:58 AM

Originally Posted by Danny

They can and they will. All it needs to a people's vote just like those folks in Facist Livonia.

I will indulge your thoughtless baiting [[not that I should, considering that the topic of conversation is a part time trolley bus for drunks, not actual transit), but because you've raised the issue I post for your benefit the GP results on the Smart funding INCREASE last week:

City of GP: 63.89 YES, 36.11 NO
http://www.grossepointecity.org/file...8%205%2014.pdf
GP Farms: 60.36 YES, 39.64 NO
http://www.grossepointefarms.org/res...0806062032.pdf
GP Woods: 62.28 YES, 37.72 NO
http://www.gpwmi.us/departments/city...ns/SUMMARY.HTM
GP Shores: 53.88 YES 46.22 NO
http://gpshoresmi.gov/Portals/40/PDF...%20Results.pdf

Grosse Pointe Park has not posted theirs online yet [[busy addressing the Kercheval barns fiasco, I assume). Anyway, expect theirs to be the most pro-SMART.