Elmhurst's Trolley Stops 'Redundant': Official

ELMHURST, IL – Elmhurst is preparing for its trolley program for next summer and winter, but one official is questioning the list of stops.

"I would not support the current stop arrangement. It's redundant in a lot of ways," Ward 2 Alderman Jake Hill said at a City Council committee meeting on Monday. "I don't understand why we have three stops so close in downtown."

The Explore Elmhurst Express Trolley program is set for 16 weeks starting in early June and five weeks starting in late November.

The trolley makes six stops in a half-hour loop.

The stops are at York Street and Park Avenue, York and Schiller Street, Second Street and Addison Avenue, Cottage Hill Avenue and Virginia Street (near the library, Wilder Park and the art museum), Spring Road and the Illinois Prairie Path, and York and Vallette Street.

Hill suggested a stop farther north, such as Elmhurst Fire Station No. 1, 209 N. York St. The station is in the southeast corner of Hill's Ward 2.

He also raised the possibility of a stop at York and Butterfield Road, on Elmhurst's south side.

If anything, Hill said, the new stops would increase traffic for downtown businesses.

Kassondra Schref, the city's point person on the trolley, said taking in a larger part of Elmhurst would make it harder for the trolley to complete its loop in a half hour.

"The council has to tell us what direction you would like this program to go," said Schref, the city's communications director.

Trolley rides are free. The program, which started in 2015, is expected to cost the city $81,000 this year.