Trolleys will give free rides to Fresno’s Tower, Brewery districts. When you can catch one

The Fresno City Council on Thursday narrowly voted to buy three trolleys to give residents free rides from Fresno State and Fresno City College to the Tower District and Brewery District in downtown Fresno.

Mayor Jerry Dyer announced his plans for the trolleys earlier this year at the annual State of the City event as a way to get more young people downtown.

The trolleys are scheduled to run from 2:30 p.m. to 12:30 a.m. Thursday through Sunday beginning in spring 2023.

The price tag to purchase the trolleys is $865,664, and it will cost about $325,000 annually for operation, maintenance and fuel.

Councilmembers Miguel Arias, Nelson Esparza, Tyler Maxwell and Esmeralda Soria voted to purchase the trolleys. Councilmembers Garry Bredefeld, Luis Chavez and Mike Karbassi voted against it.

Before the approval, the council had a long discussion on the operations of the trolleys, touching on the topics of DUIs, fare prices, routes, drivers and more.

Alfredo Molina, the treasurer for the FAX bus drivers union, spoke during public comment asking for details about the trolleys and how the operations would affect FAX drivers and current bus routes.

“We don’t really know where this is going,” Molina said. “We vaguely talked about this back in June during our negotiations and we were told that the trolleys were going to be leased, and now we find out today that we’re moving to purchase. This doesn’t sound like something temporary to me. Our biggest concern is who will be driving the bus if not (FAX drivers)? And how long would the city be able to sustain this?”

Assistant City Manager Greg Barfield said since the trolleys won’t operate under the transportation department, FAX bus drivers in the city’s Amalgamated Transit Union likely wouldn’t drive the trolleys.

Bredefeld argued the trolley service would encourage more drinking in a city that already has high rates of drunken driving. Plus, many residents have more urgent transportation needs, he said.

“Now we’re creating trolleys to bring young people to the downtown so they can get loaded. That’s exactly what we’re doing,” Bredefeld said. “We might as well make a stop on the marijuana dispensaries so we can make sure they get their marijuana.

“I’d rather redirect these to helping people who don’t have the means to to go shopping, buy food, those kinds of things,” Bredefeld said.

Dyer said he thinks the trolleys will help reduce DUIs, vehicle burglaries and demand for parking downtown.

“I think it’s a win-win all the way around,” Dyer said. “And it is an investment. It’s an investment in the future of downtown. That’s really why I think this is so important. The level of excitement that I’ve heard from people in downtown and in the Tower District is incredible.”

Maxwell said he’s happy to see the city provide free transportation, a top issue for him that he hopes will be expanded.

“That’s still my priority — is to make sure that folks that need transportation the most have reliable, zero-cost access to it,” Maxwell said. “We as a city, decade after decade, have created a city that is over 115 square miles. Yet we call on the poorest people living in our city who are the ones that often ride the FAX buses to pay to get to essential services, including our seniors and our disabled.”