The first of a dozen new trolley style buses rolled out on Thursday with a spit shine and fanfare. The new units are 20% bigger than the current downtown trolleys, which have been in service for 10 years and have gone from initially carrying 800 riders a day to the current 6,000 a day. Each new trolley costs $495,000.
A criticism you hear about public spending in advance of the RNC is “what is it buying.”
RTA has played its hand well in this. The trolleys will be around for 12 years. long after the convention.
There is more, RTA General Manager Joseph Calabrese says, “We were hopefully replacing the old 10 year old trolleys soon, didn’t have the money for it.”
US Attorney continued saying, “however but because of the RNC because we knew we’re gonna have to double the capacity of the trolleys. I want to thank the Governor, came through and provided the funding for 12 of these trolleys.”
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source: Cleveland19.com
