County plans trolley service between SRQ and downtown Sarasota

By next season, Sarasota County plans to offer a shuttle service on trolley-like vehicles between downtown Sarasota and the Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport.

On Tuesday, Jane Grogg, the county’s director of transit, presented to county commissioners preliminary plans to operate two trolleys over a limited downtown loop to the airport and back along U.S. 41 in 20- to 30-minute intervals. No capital or operational cost figures were included. That will all come during upcoming budget meetings. But Grogg said the ideal plan is to purchase two used vehicles, customize them and put them into service sometime between October and January.

Pre-owned trolleys listed on trolleybrokers.com show prices ranging from $29,000 to $150,000 depending on age, mileage, condition and features. Grogg told commissioners the trolley pictured in her presentation was a demonstration vehicle that is available for purchase.

“Being a demonstration trolley, we have a little bit more flexibility and quicker purchasing, so we're looking for opportunities like that,” she said. All the while we’re considering any new vehicle acquisition.”

The cost to ride is projected to be $2 per person. The vehicles will be equipped with technology to utilize the county’s Breeze Rider app, as it does for its Siesta Key shuttle service. The downtown loop is yet to be determined, but will be mapped out for convenience to the downtown hotel and condominium towers.

“If I owned a hotel in downtown Sarasota, I might literally pay to be one of your stops,” said Commissioner Mike Moran. 

“We’re looking at that, too,” responded County Administrator Jonathan Lewis.

Grogg said county staff is engaged in ongoing meetings with airport representatives on staging and operating the shuttle. It comes at a time when the airport is executing an aggressive building plan to expand its limited parking.

“Sarasota County has consulted with the airport on this to ensure there were no operational issues,” said SRQ President and CEO Rick Piccolo. “We are supportive of the shuttle as it will ease some of the parking issues and also provide further convenience to our facility for users.”

County staff is also planning meetings with city counterparts in the coming weeks to discuss logistics and with hotel managers regarding their level of interest in participating and hosting trolley stops. A collaboration with Visit Sarasota is hashing out an awareness campaign to make visitors — who would otherwise use a ride-sharing service or rent a car — aware of the service.

The buses will resemble trolleys with upgrades such as ramps to help facilitate luggage loading and handicapped access and baggage stowage. And unlike the city’s open-air Bay Runner trolleys, they will be air conditioned.

Courtesy photo

“We’ve noticed that the vehicle choice is very important. We have a lot of success with our trolley service on Siesta Key and the tourists seem to be attracted to that type of service,” Grogg said. “There is an increase in visitors arriving by plane at SRQ as well as the number who are visiting and staying downtown while they're here. So the proposed characteristics that we are looking at include a direct service with limited stops primarily at the airport and then a small number of cluster stops in the downtown Sarasota area.”

Commissioner Mike Smith echoed Grogg on the success of the Breeze trolley on Siesta Key.

“Our experience on Siesta Key has been tremendous with the trolley service,” he said. “I think we are averaging close to 300,000 riders annually. We'll get into the nuts and bolts later, but I think this is a great idea. And I know that people will ride trolleys. Before they'll touch a bus, they'll ride a trolley.”

Grogg told commissioners the bulk of SRQ’s arrivals and departures occur between 11 a.m. and 7 p.m. To provide for two-hour advance passenger departures and lagging arrivals in the evening, she recommends operating the service between 8 a.m. and 9 p.m.