Downtown Night Trolley This Weekend

[Bill Hoff]

Great experience on the trolley last night. Just went for a short time to try it out, but will make a night of it next time.

Jessicapants - I believe a San Marco route will materialize sooner than later : )

[jaxjaguar]

I noticed the "expired card" thing Saturday night, but the drivers weren't keeping count... Hopefully that doesn't skew the numbers, because all of the trolleys I rode were full or nearly full up until 1:30ish.

I spoke with the bartenders at the Bay Street bars and they said they all said they liked it and thought they received above average attendance. The girl at UnderBelly was particularly happy that they didn't have cover that night... She said she thinks it's the only reason their business sucks.. I wholeheartedly agree. I think the days of everyone being willing to pay cover (in Jacksonville at least) are pretty much over. I'll just go somewhere else if I know I'm going to have to pay to get in.

[TPC]

Some coworkers and I had a night out starting at Black sheep then heading downtown to Burro Bar for Fjord Explorers CD release party. I decided to drive to 5 Points since I was going to meet some people late night at Birdies and didn't want to risk missing the trolly at 2 am, and I'm glad I did. My co-workers whop took the trolly from Avondale to 5 Points said the driver was rude and there were too many stops, it took them 40 minuets to get from Avondale to 5 Points on the Trolly.

The Trolly we took from 5 Points to Downtown was great though and there were no complaints on that ride. I really want to support the trolly but it seems like the Avondale one has to many stops and drivers with bad attitudes.

[fieldafm]

Appreciate everyone's support and feedback.


It appears there was an issue on Friday night and on Saturday night with some drivers that gave some riders a bad experience. This regretable experience was not universal for all trolleys/drivers... but for sure one driver on Friday and one driver on Saturday made for some quite (understandably) upsetting experiences. I truly empathize with some of you.

These concerns have been addressed to the highest levels of JTA management.


I would HIGHLY encourage you to document these less than positive experiences on the customer service comment form at JTA available here: http://www.jtafla.com/RidingJTA/showPage.aspx?Sel=19.

Many messages were received on the trolley facebook pages and passed along to JTA, however these instances need to be documented by riders directly with JTA.

These issues will get fixed.

[jaxlore]

http://www.bizjournals.com/jacksonville/news/2014/08/07/downtown-trolley-try-out-a-success.html

The Jacksonville Transportation Authority's test last weekend of a Downtown Night Trolley went so well, staff is asking for permission to move ahead with a pilot program.
The trolley, which ran Downtown on Friday and Saturday night, had to have at least 25 riders per hour to be considered a success, the JTA said. Ridership was about 40 people per hour, said Leigh Ann Rassler, spokesperson for JTA.
Friday night, the trolley had 270 passengers. On Saturday, it had 370.
"It's very successful," Rassler said.
The next step is for the JTA board to review the stats and see if it wants to move forward with starting a pilot program.
The pilot program would likely be similar to the program the agency conducted before kicking off the Riverside Trolley. That program had the bus run the first weekend of each month for about half a year.
"I feel comfortable," Rassler said, "but i'm not the board."
The board meets next on Aug. 28.

[jaxjaguar]

This is very positive news, but I wonder how much the "error" scans affected this? Based on my experience I feel like way more people rode. I went on multiple trolleys where 10-15 people in a row would get on with the error message and the driver wouldn't count them. I noticed the error would also cause a delay so even if your card was working it would cause the next 2 people behind you to scan while the original error was still displayed.

[fieldafm]

Drivers have a button they can push manually to count a rider if there is a malfunction on the fare box.

[jaxjaguar]

I was sitting in the seat next to the driver watching for them to press something or to see if they were keeping a mental count. Most of them would just use it as an opportunity to drink or stare out the front window. If they were keeping count they were masters of not looking like it haha

[Tacachale]

It would be sweet if they could have the skyway running during that time.

[fsujax]

The trolleys are equipped with automatic counters. Counters are at both doors. Similar to the Skyway.