Downtown Night Trolley This Weekend
(http://photos.metrojacksonville.com/photos/2997972096_nXs6MHW-M.jpg)
This Friday and Saturday night, ride the Downtown Night Trolley from 6pm until 2am. The trolley route runs from Five Points in the Riverside neighborhood to Downtown including stops at the Jacksonville Landing, The Elbow entertainment district and downtown hotels.
Read More: http://www.metrojacksonville.com/article/2014-jul-downtown-night-trolley-this-weekend
Would really encourage you to pick up a STAR card today or tomorrow and ride the trolley this weekend.
A STAR card allows you to hop on/off the trolley all night (one night only). If you do not have a STAR card, it will cost $1.50 each time you board the trolley (exact change, no credit cards... and you cannot purchase a STAR card on board the trolley). The only way to transfer between the Downtown Night Trolley and the Riverside Avondale Night Trolley will be with a STAR card. Otherwise, you would have to pay $1.50 to board.
Free STAR cards are available at:
The restaurants of the Jacksonville Landing (Koja, Fionn MacCools, Bennys, Hooters, Chicago Pizza, Cinco De Mayo)
Marksjax
Champblins Uptown
Burrito Gallery
1904 Music Hall
The Hourglass Pub
The Volstead
Dos Gatos
Burro Bar
*Please note, STAR cards are not available at Indochine or Underbelly as the article (which was written by me) implies
Special note, there will be fireworks downtown along the riverfront Saturday night around 9:30pm. Great way to get there and back is by using the trolley.
Also, trolleys run until 2am however it is highly suggested to board your final trolley well before 1:30am.
A map of both the Downtown and Riverside Avondale Night Trolleys can be found by typing trolley.jaxmob.com into the browser on your smartphone. This will also track each trolley in real time along the route. Don't miss the bus, see where each trolley is in the palm of your hands.
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You can also visit downtownnightrolley.com or visit Facebook.com/DowntownNightTrolley for more info.
looking forward to getting from riverside to dt!
This is awesome! Great way to boost the economy, awareness and night life downtown!
Swung in to Dos Gatos last night for some drinks and passes.
If you are going to the Landing, you can also pick up free tickets just by stopping at the Landing management offices during normal business hours... no purchase required.
The Landing mgmt offices are upstairs in the food court, all the way in the back behind the restrooms.
Just to clarify... "Exact change is required" might be a little misleading in the fact that if you put in $2 you won't get change. You can still ride. JTA is just keeping your 50 cents change. Getting your pass in advance is your best bet but not having exact change won't prevent you from getting on board, you're just not getting any change back.
Marks Jax has quite a few passes if anyone is interested in stopping by tonight (they also have a pretty good happy hour, which also kills two birds with one stone).
Fieldafm, I just want to make sure that only one STAR card is required for the entire route, including transfers? The flyer makes it sound as if you need a separate STAR card for each leg (riverside then downtown). It seems ridiculous that 2 STAR cards would be required for one passenger, but just thought that I would ask. I got my card yesterday at Burrito Gallery!
QuoteFieldafm, I just want to make sure that only one STAR card is required for the entire route, including transfers? The flyer makes it sound as if you need a separate STAR card for each leg (riverside then downtown). It seems ridiculous that 2 STAR cards would be required for one passenger, but just thought that I would ask. I got my card yesterday at Burrito Gallery!
Yes, one STAR card will work on both routes. If you have a STAR card, you can hop on/off both routes (Riverside/Avondale and Downtown) as much as you want for one night.
Without a STAR card, every time you step aboard either the Riverside/Avondale or the Downtown trolleys it will cost $1.50 in cash.
Thank you for your support!
Thank you for answering my question. I really enjoy using the Riverside Night Trolley, and my friends and I are looking forward to the Downtown Night Trolley!
Wooh fireworks! haha
Will this be at the Landing? Any special occasion or just trying to attract people?
QuoteWooh fireworks! haha
Will this be at the Landing? Any special occasion or just trying to attract people?
Yes, fireworks at the Landing sometime after 9:30pm Saturday night.
You never need a special occasion to blow stuff up!
QuoteThank you for answering my question. I really enjoy using the Riverside Night Trolley, and my friends and I are looking forward to the Downtown Night Trolley!
A sincere thanks for riding Jessica!
Last day to get free tickets!
Several of us went to eat at Indochine today and were told that they never received any trolley passes. They took our names down on a list so that we could pick them up later if they ever do eventually get them.
^^ see second entry above by Field as he corrected the story and said they were not available at Indochine or Underbelly.
Thanks, ed. I actually had used the downtown trolley website, which was not updated either. But I definitely should have known (not sarcastic) that the most accurate information would be found in the comments section of MJ.com.
The Landing management office still has a limited amount of free passes to giveaway today if you go before 5pm. The mgmt office is located upstairs, behind the food court.
You can also purchase a pass for $4 at the following Riverside/Avondale merchants: Open Road Bicycles of Avondale, Let The Eat Cake, Mellow Mushroom Avondale, European Street Cafe, The Silver Cow, Intuition Ale Works, Bold City Brewery and Grassroots Natural Market.
*Also of note, Chamblins Uptown will be open extended hours tonight and tomorrow night for the trolley. Healthy food options and $3 beers may appeal to some (it certainly appeals to me :) )
Marks and Dive Bar along Bay Street still have trolley passes to giveaway (while supplies last).
Another cool special tonight: show your trolley card at The Volstead and get a free 'trolley drink'. Not sure what the drink is, but free drinks sound delicious.
1904 Music Hall is also having a special happy hour from 6-9pm tonight in the 'backyard' behind 1904. They are giving away a free Bold City keg!!!
That's great! Any other specials for tomorrow night? I won't be able to go out until then.
Rode the trolley last night! It was great, per usual. Downtown businesses are giving away the Trolley passes for free with a purchase of a drink! Not sure if they all are, but Burro Bar and Volstead definitely did last night!
Me and a couple friends took the trolley downtown for dinner at Indochine and then walked to The Volstead. It was a cool experience to be able to get downtown like that. I hope the numbers tonight for the downtown leg are strong so this can become a reoccurring thing.
We had the worst experience last night when the trolley driver told us our star cards expired at midnight. We had just activated them at 8:30 pm. He said we had to buy new ones to get back on the trolley from midnight on. That's total BS. This driver is going to ruin it for everyone.
^ was this Saturday night? We heard that there were some issues with this Friday night, but the drivers apparently were all informed yesterday on how to deal with the post-midnight issue.
Yeah it was last night. This driver had a bad attitude all night. He picked up some people on king street and the girl asked about the downtown trolley and all he said was this doesn't go downtown. He said that twice and offered no more info. I finally had to tell the girl to take this one to 5 points then get on the one to downtown from there. This lazy guy was just an ass and had no desire to do his job.
That sucks. The previous 2 times I've been on after midnight, it's been this same really laid back driver. He would just use a clicker to keep track of card users after midnight. I'm guessing someone else was covering Riverside after midnight this weekend.
I will say that my driver in Downtown on friday night was nowhere near as friendly as the drivers I've had previously in Riverside. But, in Riverside, our driver had us up and singing karaoke over the intercom, so... That amount of friendliness can't be expected from every driver.
I rode the Riverside Night Trolley and the Downtown Night Trolley last night and it went really well. The trolleys were full on all of my trips and I didn't have any problems. But I did notice that the drivers were quieter and less obviously helpful than some of the others I have met while using the Riverside Night Trolley in the past. It really wasn't a big deal for me though. Now if we can just get a San Marco trolley going, I would be totally happy... Thanks to everyone who has worked hard to get the trolleys going! I truly appreciate it.
Nice to see the communities connected, if only by rubber tires. Maybe one day it can be rails or monorails.
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 : )
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.
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.
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 (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.
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.
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.
Drivers have a button they can push manually to count a rider if there is a malfunction on the fare box.
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
It would be sweet if they could have the skyway running during that time.
The trolleys are equipped with automatic counters. Counters are at both doors. Similar to the Skyway.