West Cook News

The Elmhurst City Council discussed the Explore Elmhurst Trolley program’s future March 6 during a meeting.

The city launched the program in 2015 to encourage residents and visitors to spend time in downtown Elmhurst and interact with the businesses located there. The program operates during two periods: the summer season and the shorter holiday season.

After reviewing data collected from the 2022 seasons, the Public Affairs Committee suggested having the summer season span 16 weeks from June 2 to Sept. 16 and the holiday season span six weeks from Nov. 25 to Dec. 30, according to a video of the meeting posted to the council’s YouTube page.

City Alderman, Marti Deuter, spoke about changes to the program such as new advertising that increased rates and brought more revenue to Elmhurst, as well as changes to data collection methods.

When the trolley was first introduced, the only method the city had to count passengers was by having the driver keep track with a clicker. This method did not provide any information on passenger demographics, which stops were used, the length of trips, or the duration of each passenger's ride.

The city's information technology department recently discovered a new tool that can be used to tell which passengers are adults or children, when and where they get on or off the trolley, how long their rides are, and the length of the whole trolley loop, according to comments made during the meeting.

"I’m happy to see the addition of data collection to the program," said Alderman, Chris Jensen. "This will be the first summer out of the COVID pandemic, so when this is revisited in a year we will have good data to examine when considering possible modifications to the program. While it is no longer being considered for this year, I am hopeful that in the future we can see an expanded route during Rock the Block and the Holly Trolley, which would provide an opportunity for residents further from downtown to enjoy this unique experience more easily during these special events."

The summer season trolley will run from noon to midnight Fridays and Saturdays, with 30-minute loops and seven stops at the following locations: York and Park, York and Schiller, York and Third, Second and Addison, College Hill and Virginia, Spring and Illinois Prairie Path, and York and Vallette.

The “Holly Trolley” holiday season will run from noon to midnight Saturdays through the same route.

The council approved the trolley program changes with a vote of 12-0.