For more than a decade, Estes Transit has been showcasing the best of Estes Park via a bright red trolley. 

But for the first time since the trolleys joined the community in 2006, the new electric trolley will continue to operate as temperatures begin to drop and as the rain turns to snow.

“There’s been a strong desire around town, especially with the local residents to have year round transportation, because there is not a lot of options in Estes Park that are free and publicly available,” said Parking and Transportation Manager Vanessa Solesbee.

“Although the trolley will be for everyone, it’s really for our local community members who might not have readily available transportation, and need to go to the grocery store or the public library.”

Starting Wednesday, locals and tourists will be able to ride the trolley around town free of charge between 2 p.m. and 5 p.m. each Wednesday through May 26, said Solesbee.

Discussions about continuing the trolley service past the summer has been an ongoing topic for several years, but after officials reevaluated this year’s budget, and with the addition of a new electric trolley, they turned words into action.

“We realized that we needed to drive the trolley at least weekly through the winter to keep the battery fresh, so we decided that we would try to find some silver lining with all the saving we’d done in our budget this year, and offer a weekly service for our community,” Solesbee said.

The trolley’s route contains 12 separate stops at highly visited areas throughout the city including Downtown, Estes Park Health, Crossroads Ministry and Estes Valley Community Center. 

Although the trolley will be up and running on Wednesday, it will be operating at only 50% capacity — or 13 passengers — because of COVID-19 regulations. Officials say face coverings are required for anyone  2-years-old and older to ride the trolley. Spare masks will be provided to riders who do not have one. 

Solesbee said minutes after officials made the announcement, she’d received countless emails from community members in favor of the program. 

Although officials and locals are excited about the winter trolley, officials say the experiment will help decide whether Estes Park will expand the program in the future, or even apply for additional grants.

“I would love to say that this will be a stepping stone for us to expand service in the future, however, we always need to be mindful that our service currently is funded by the town,” Solesbee said.”

If this is something that’s successful and well received by the community, I think there are some other opportunities for us, and will provide us with a proof of concept to potentially get some grant funds that are available for rural communities, or potentially approach some of our private sector partners for funding support.”

Solesbee added that if the pilot program is successful, she is committed to finding a way to “not only continue, but build upon service in future years.”