No Northside Elmhurst Trolley Stops?

ELMHURST, IL – An Elmhurst City Council committee is set to decide Monday on a measure to keep the trolley service downtown.

But it includes no new stops, despite an alderman's push to do so.

At a meeting, the three-member Public Affairs and Safety Committee plans to vote on bringing the trolley back this summer and winter. It started in 2015.

On the table is a proposal to keep the six traditional stops: York Street and Avenue, York and Schiller Street, Second Street and Addison Avenue, Cottage Hill Avenue and Virginia Street, Spring Road and Illinois Prairie Path, and York and Vallette Street.

The memo calls for eliminating a year-old stop at York and Third streets. It is being eliminated because of low ridership, the city said.

For at least a year, Ward 2 Alderman Jacob Hill, a committee member, has called for adding stops on the north and south sides.

Last March, he referred to the city's opposition to such an idea as "intransigence."

In September, Hill and Karen Sienko of Ward 2, Michael Bram of Ward 3 and James Nudera of Ward 5 proposed the city consider other stops on the trolley route.

Except for Nudera, the aldermen represent the north side, which sometimes feels left out of city decisions.

In a December discussion, Mayor Scott Levin opposed adding stops outside of downtown. He said the trolley should be considered a fun way to get around the business districts, not as a form of public transportation.

Hill agreed the trolley was an experience, but said the mayor's statement sounded like a slippery-slope argument.

"I don't think the experience should be denied to other parts of town," Hill said.

The committee's other members are Michael Brennan and Guido Nardini. Neither of them called for more stops during the December debate.

The full City Council gets the final say.