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“The streetcar is not a back-door, subversive way to try to remove traffic from River Street,” Brandon said.
That was welcome news to Mary Waitzman, owner of Adventures in Savannah, which coordinates local tours for out-of-town vendors.
Waitzman and other local tour companies have heard for months that the tourist buses would be banned and told Brandon that some out-of-town vendors were canceling plans to bring groups to Savannah because they thought they no longer could travel down the historic cobblestone street.
Waitzman has one company that brings about 350 buses to Savannah each year, she said. She was at Tuesday’s meeting because she wanted to offer assurances to that vendor and others.
“Their (representative) has been on the phone every day for six months,” she said. “River Street’s perfect for what we do because we have the shops and the restaurants, and River Street is an icon for the city. A visit to Savannah isn’t complete without a visit to River Street.”
She and other tourism vendors, however, notified the Savannah Waterfront Association that if the coaches were kept off River Street, they would have to consider plans to move the buses - and the loads of tourists on them - to Broughton Street. Waitzman said she was assured that will not be necessary.
Charlie Brown, the sales and marketing manager for Old Savannah Tours, said his company is concerned because the city is considering not running the streetcar during festivals such as the craft shows on the first Saturday of each month.
“The whole selling point to get this was that it would move a lot of people along River Street,” he said.
Ready for operation
The city has spent about $1 million to buy the tracks along River Street and to restore and upgrade a vintage streetcar to operate as a biodiesel-electric hybrid.
When the trolley arrived in Savannah on Nov. 19, city officials estimated it would be in operation by mid-December.
Now, the city is projecting the Feb. 11 start. Several operational issues remain. While Brandon assured the groups that motor coaches will be allowed to stay, he said other changes will need to be made.
The streetcar will not operate until noon so business owners will have the morning hours to schedule deliveries. That should ease conflicts between the streetcar and the bulky delivery vehicles.
At the outset, the streetcar will operate from noon to 7 p.m. Wednesdays through Sundays, said Jimmy Gunby, a Chatham Area Transit supervisor who is overseeing driver training.
Eventually, the city hopes to run the car from about noon to 10 p.m. six days a week, Brandon said. Parking enforcement also will be stepped up to keep vehicles from lining the curb.
“All you need is one or two cars, and it gets really complicated to move the trolley and the rest of traffic,” Brandon said.
The city will look at using the ramps up to Bay Street as delivery areas, which may mean reducing the time allowed for regular parking.
Further discussion will be needed about the craft festivals, he said. Vendors currently are allowed to park their cars on River Street, even after they unload for the show.
To accommodate the streetcar, the crafters would have to move their cars after unloading, an idea supported by several merchants.
Hope for the future
Brandon and River Street merchants continue to be optimistic about the popularity of the streetcar. Initial estimates project that about 700 passengers a day will ride during the peak tourist season, but others think the number will be higher.
About 2,000 people a day ride the ferry from River Street to Hutchinson Island, and the trolley tours move about 1,800 people a day, Brandon said.
To stimulate interest, Savannah Mobility Management, a public-private partnership focused on improving downtown transportation, has agreed to fund the first 40,000 fares, which normally are 50 cents round-trip.
The city, Brandon said, is interested in seeing what it can do to keep the fare free.
He tried to assure participants Tuesday that the city is proceeding carefully because, “We really want to do this right.”
Waitzman, for one, wants the streetcar to work but said as she left the meeting that she and other operators were taking a “wait and see” approach.
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