Another fascinating Scott Schwebke story in Sunday's Standard-Examiner , under the headline "Trolley buses in Ogden?" It was only a couple of days ago that gentle reader "Fly on the Wall" hinted in a lower comments thread that Boss Godfrey was interested in "trolley buses" for downtown Ogden; and lo and behold... we suddenly find a story on the subject spashed all over the front page of our home-town newspaper. From here on out, we suggest that we all pay much closer attention to the revelations of reader Fly, just as Ace Reporter Schwebke apparently did. We incorporate Mr. Schwebke's lead paragraphs below:
OGDEN — Mayor Matthew Godfrey plans to ask the Weber Area Council of Governments to recommend the use of money from a quarter-cent sales tax to purchase a pair of trolley-style buses to serve downtown.As encouraging as it is to learn that our esteemed mayor is actually considering forms of public transit that don't involve gondolas, Ace Reporter Schwebke's article leaves a few questions unanswered. This morning's story cries out for a further definition of terms, we believe. When Godfrey refers to "rubberized trolleys," is he referring to something like this?
Voters in November approved the tax that’s expected to generate about $9 million annually for transit and transportation infrastructure in Weber County, said Douglas S. Larsen, the county’s chief deputy assessor.
Godfrey is hopeful the Weber Area Council of Governments, which is responsible for recommending which projects are funded, will request that some of those proceeds be used to buy two rubberized trolleys from the Utah Transit Authority.
The above illustration, gleaned from this Wikipedia article, portrays what most folks would consider to be a "rubberized trolley bus," we think. This form of urban conveyance has proven popular in cities across the globe. Powered by electicity, these vehicles don't belch reeking diesel exhaust, and would be ideal in a downtown loop such as the one discussed in this morning's article. On the other hand, the above vehicles require overhead electrical wiring, an expensive infrastructure item not mentioned anywhere in today's Ace Reporter Schwebke story. And our readers will also note some special terminology: "Trolley-style buses."
It's upon these clues that we're going to take a wild guess it's another form of trolley bus that Boss Godfrey is thinking about:
The above vehicle, a diesel-powered, bus chassis-mounted contraption, manufactured by a company called Cable Car Classics, of Healdsburg, California, is right up Godfrey's alley, we think. In those comunities where these vehicles drive the streets, they are affectionately known by locals as "faux trolleys." Given Boss Godfrey's well known preference for anything and everything "fake," (rockclimbing, iceclimbing, skydiving, surfing, Tyrolian Ski resorts, etc,) we're going to go out on a limb and suggest that it's the latter vehicle which truly suits Godfrey's fancy. Imagine a couple of these, festooned with ski company decals and Ogden City logos rolling around the downtown Ogden streets. Imagine commissioning one of these beauties by the hour for your kid's wedding, baby shower or bar-mitzvah. It doesn't get any better than that, does it?
So what about it gentle readers? Is Godfrey finally getting serious about downtown public transit; or is he merely chasing another Godfreyesque lame gimmick?
Update 5/1/08 1:03 p.m. MT: Due to the popularity of this article, which was originally published on Sunday, 4/27/08, we're re-publishing it with today's date. The farther down the front page an article progresses, the less comment traffic it generates. We don't intend to let that happen in this instance. Our apologies go out to our email subscibers, who will have a deja vu experience when this article appears in their email inboxes for a second go-round. Sorry email subscribers... this cannot be helped.
And while we're at it with this re-posting, we link this fine article from the Transit In Utah blog, which adds further "grist to the mill," re our original topic.
