New Bronx Trolley Needs a Parking Space

If you live in Norwood or Bedford Park, you may have seen it: a shiny new bus disguised as a trolley. It barrels down Mosholu Parkway heading toward the Botanical Garden. An hour or so later you'll see it cruising back towards Riverdale. Don't try to get on, though, because after a stop near Tracey Towers, it goes express along the parkway until it reaches Southern Boulevard.

In case you haven't guessed yet, it's the Bronx Tour Trolley. The trolley was bought with $140,000 of city funds secured last year by former Councilwoman June Eisland. A constituent had complained how hard it was for residents of Kingsbridge to reach Bronx tourist destinations such as the Garden, the Zoo and Belmont. The resulting free trolley, however, isn't solving anyone's transportation problem.

If ever there was a project in need of a market study, it's this trolley. Like a latter day "Train to the Plane," the trolley is clean and pleasant, but more importantly it's almost always empty.

What's wrong? Why isn't a free bus to the zoo packed? It's because the trolley is more gimmick and photo-op than public transportation. To be effective, mass transit needs frequent, dependable service, and while the trolley's price may seem right, the average person doesn't know where the trolley goes, where it stops or when it runs. (It runs on weekends and holidays, but don't tell anyone.)

Crosstown transportation to the Garden, the Zoo, Fordham University and Belmont does need to be improved. But what's needed is regular bus service, seven days a week and into the evening. The reopening of the Bedford Park Boulevard bridge makes it possible to extend the No. 19 bus up Bedford Park to Lehman College. There it could connect with other buses including the No. 1 and No. 10 serving Norwood, Kingsbridge and Riverdale.

This change will serve as an economic tool as well as a travel convenience. Each of these Bronx institutions has undergone a renaissance during the past decade. Bus service will not only better connect them to the neighborhoods of the northwest Bronx, but also to the IND and IRT subways, the express bus to Manhattan and Westchester buses. Bedford Park Boulevard is a pleasant shopping strip which provides the right mix of stores for visitors and residents alike. Better bus service helps local business as well as Bronx cultural and educational landmarks.

The MTA says the No. 19 route is already too long and wants to reduce its run, which now extends to 145th Street in Manhattan. This is a solvable problem and the MTA needs to give service along Bedford Park another look.

And what about the trolley? For now we should just park it. At a time when Mayor Bloomberg is planning to end weekend meals for the elderly, it's a civic embarrassment to see this empty bus making its rounds. Its future should be decided after discussions with the Bronx County Historical Society (the museums it runs at Valentine- Varian House in Norwood and Poe Park in Fordham Bedford are conspicuously bypassed by the trolley), the Tourist Board, the borough president, the Parks Department and some of the major institutions named above. A well-developed plan can put the Bronx Trolley back on the right track.

John Reilly is a Bedford Park resident and executive director of the Fordham Bedford Housing Corporation.

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