On August 31, NewsLanc published the following article and referred to the anonymous author as an “alleged” trolley bus driver. In the Sept. 14th Sunday News, Terry Dohl identified himself as the driver in an “In My Opinion” column.
Dohl zeroes in on the Lancaster establishment being purposefully fact-averse with the following stinging comment: “Because [the trolley bus] covers many of the same destinations as the proposed streetcar, one would think that the Lancaster Streetcar Co. might want firsthand information from the person who spends the most time doing the run. But no, not when the group can hire consultants at a large fee to come and tell it what it wants to hear.”
We saw this approach, for more venal ends, rigidly applied over the past years with the launch of the convention center / hotel project.
Alleged bus driver derides streetcar scheme
On LancasterOnLine.com, a contributor who self identifies as a driver “for the Historic Downtown Trolley (a bus in another costume)” states that there are only about 25 passengers a day and that most of them are “the original passengers from 4 years ago.”
The individual goes on to state “On a daily basis, if I could not change lanes on Queen Street, PrinceStreet, Duke Street or Vine Street, I would be a stationary object. Anyone who thinks a fixed rail line in Lancaster City would be viable is welcome to take a couple of rides with me.”
Excuse us for introducing an eye witness and facts into the discussion. (The lack of ridership is consistent with information provided by RRTA many months ago.) As observed from the Convention Center Project run up, it is only what money can be made by special interests that carry any weight.
