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Wolfeboro trolley operator ends downtown shuttle after three-year trial; promotes tours and parking enforcement
Summary
Kathy Fairman of the Wolfeboro Trolley Company told the commission she will not run the downtown shuttle this year after finding the service did not reduce congestion; she recommended more parking enforcement and municipal parking to relieve downtown pressure.
Kathy Fairman, owner of the Wolfeboro Trolley Company, told the Police Commission she will not operate the free downtown shuttle this year after a three-year trial found it did not reduce traffic congestion downtown.
"We're not going to be running the shuttle this year," Fairman said, describing the decision as based on ridership, business feedback and observed traffic patterns during previous summers. She said the narrated tour trolley "Molly" will continue operating and that no trolley employees will lose positions as a result of the change.
Why it matters: downtown traffic and parking affect business access and public safety in peak summer months. Fairman's observations pointed to parking enforcement and creating more municipal parking as more effective levers to open spaces for customers than a shuttle service that residents did not widely use.
Fairman told the commission that while the company experimented with a downtown shuttle to keep cars out of the center and ease circling traffic, riders did not adopt the service as hoped. She said a partnership with the Mount Washington Cruise Company to offer combined tickets worked well, and the trolley operator will extend "Molly's" hours with two driver shifts to serve that demand.
She reported that during one year of stricter enforcement of parking time limits and illegal parking, employees found alternative parking and downtown spaces opened up — an effect she said the shuttle itself had not produced. Fairman also said Jolley the Trolley will be sold and that she plans to run only the narrated tours going forward, while still providing a free shuttle downtown for the July 4 parade.
The commission acknowledged the operator's report and accepted copies of a letter Fairman said she would circulate to selectmen and staff. Commissioners and selectmen discussed enforcement and municipal parking capacity as the likely levers to address recurring summer congestion.
