Lowell transit project hits the road
Trolley bus offers first look at plan to improve parking, reduce traffic
By MATT WICKENHEISER
Sun Staff
This story appeared in the Lowell Sun December 8, 2000
LOWELL -- The downtown isn't always easy to access for visitors and natives alike,
with confusing one-ways, congested traffic and parking problems packed into one
unfriendly bundle.
The Lowell Regional Transit Authority Thursday unveiled plans it hopes will address
every one of those issues.
Most immediately impressive and visually appealing of the four-part plan was a
trolley-bus brought to Lowell by the Chance Coach company of Wichita, Kan.
Replete with dark Philippine mahogany trim and hand-turned brass fixtures,
mahogany slat seats, cast-iron detailing and leather hand straps inside, the "trolley" represents the finest
such vehicle in the country, said LRTA administrator Robert Kennedy.
Reba Malone, vice president of market development for Chance Coach, said the trolleys are the "Cadillac" of
their genre, and came at a price of $310,000 apiece.
The plan is to purchase five of the trolley-buses, said Kennedy, and use them as shuttles for the downtown
area. They would leave the Gallagher terminal and stop about once every five to seven minutes at the courts,
DoubleTree Hotel, Lowell Memorial Auditorium, the various museums, parking garages, the Lowell National
Historical Park, the shops and restaurants, LeLacheur Park and Paul E. Tsongas Arena, said Kennedy.
The best part, said Kennedy, is the price per ride.
"This will be free to all," he said.
Kennedy spoke to about 45 local business and city leaders at the DoubleTree yesterday, along with Malone,
to talk about the transportation plan and take in feedback.
The other parts of the plan, said Kennedy, include:
* The ongoing construction of a parking garage addition at the Gallagher terminal. That, he said, will add 420
parking spaces, bringing the total to 1,200 spaces. The garage is scheduled to be done within about 15
months.
* Once the spaces are added, the LRTA will transform the parking lot in front of the Gallagher terminal into a
"bus hub," where buses going to the neighborhoods and out of the city will be available. That will take the
buses out of the downtown. People will ride the trolleys (for free) to the Gallagher terminal, where they will
catch whatever bus they need. That will eliminate the bus hub that is now between Paige and Merrimack
streets.
The space there will go to the city to develop into whatever it wants, Kennedy said.
* The buses heading to the downtown bus hub now stage on Merrimack, John, Paige and Bridge streets,
adding to the congestion. Instead of staging downtown, they will stage near the Gallagher terminal, at a bus
maintenance facility being built at 100 Hale St., Kennedy said.
Every part of the plan is interdependent on the other, said Kennedy, including plans to build a day-care
center for commuters at the terminal, with access from the new parking garage addition.
"It's an incredible coordination job," said Kennedy.
Once the bus hub is moved from the downtown, people will need to get from downtown to the terminal, and
vice versa, said Kennedy, hence the trolley shuttle idea.
The whole thing should be complete, with trolley shuttles running downtown, by December of 2002, Kennedy
said. The plans represent in excess of $15 million in investments, he said.
The trolleys will help the downtown by providing easy access to shops, restaurants and attractions, said
Kennedy. They will also link the spots together, making it easy, for example, for a person to travel from the
Auditorium to Cobblestones restaurant, and for free.
The trolleys add a touch of class to a downtown, said Malone, and are an attraction in and of themselves.
The Chance Coach trolleys are in place throughout the country, she said, as close as Providence, R.I., and
as far away as San Antonio, Texas.
"People will ride a trolley that won't get on a 40-foot bus," she said. "It's like going from a bicycle to a
Cadillac. That's the mentality."
Those gathered for the presentation appeared impressed by the plans, and by the trolleys in particular.
City Councilor Rita Mercier said she would be glad to see the diesel-chugging buses out of the downtown, to
be replaced with the natural-gas burning trolleys.
"That's what we want to show for our city, a clean environment," she said.
Marie Sweeney, head of the Greater Lowell Area Democrats, noted that the shuttle system set up by the
LRTA for the Democratic State Convention was praised by many delegates. This plan, she said, seems to
parallel the system set up for the convention.
City Manager John Cox said the plan would help the ongoing revitalization of the downtown.
"It's a quality of life issue," he said.
Matt Wickenheiser's e-mail address is mwickenheiser@lowellsun.com.
© 2000 MediaNews Group, Inc.
All rights to republication of special dispatches herein are reserved.
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Wheels turning on LRTA trolley plan
Removal of buses from key sites seen as boost to downtown Lowell
By CHRISTOPHER SCOTT
Sun Staff
This story ran on page 1 of The Sun on 5/7/2000.
LOWELL -- When Robert Kennedy took the reins at the Lowell Regional Transit
Authority (LRTA) eight years ago, the few morning trains arriving at Gallagher
Intermodal Transportation Center seldom carried more than 50 riders combined.
Today, the station bustles with activity, especially on weekday mornings, as close
to 1,000 commuters step off the trains daily.
With that dramatic rise in the number of commuters, Kennedy said the timing
couldn't be better to dramatically change the way the LRTA conducts business, especially at the
Gallagher terminal -- the third busiest in the state behind North and South Stations -- and in downtown
Lowell.
One very visible way public transportation will change in the city is that Merrimack and Paige streets in
downtown Lowell will no longer be used as a bus staging area, long a sore spot with city councilors and
downtown merchants.
Keeping in step with Lowell's efforts to become a destination city, Kennedy, LRTA administrator, and
the LRTA's Advisory Board is proposing a $13 million capital improvement plan.
"As Lowell continues on its path to become a destination city and the downtown approaches its critical
mass, it is imperative that public transportation grow in step with that of the city," Kennedy said. "It is the
LRTA's highest priority to meet this challenge by providing state of the art equipment, professional
management and a transportation system second to none."
A key element of the plan is the construction of a $2.8 million bus transfer hub at the Gallagher Terminal.
If federal funding can be secured, LRTA buses that now travel throughout Acton, Billerica, Chelmsford,
Dracut, Dunstable, Groton, Lowell, Pepperell, Tewksbury, Townsend, Tyngsboro and Westford will no
longer use Merrimack and Paige Streets in downtown Lowell to pick up and drop off riders.
That would be done at the Gallagher, and authentic-looking trolleys powered by natural gas will shuttle
passengers to and from more than a dozen key downtown locations every 5-7 minutes on a 3.2- mile
loop.
U.S. Rep. Martin Meehan said he is confident the $2.8 million will be appropriated.
"We have our work cut out for us," Meehan said. "But every time we set out to secure funds for the
LRTA, we've had a lot of success."
Richard Doyle, Federal Transit Administration regional administrator, agreed.
"We've always felt federal money is well spent here in Lowell," Doyle said. "We've never had any
qualms about how Lowell spends federal money."
Another of the plan's key elements is moving the LRTA's bus maintenance facility from Clark Road in
Tewksbury, behind Stadium Plaza, to a large abandoned circuit board manufacturing site on Hale Street
in Lowell -- the same site once eyed for a newspaper recycling facility.
Advisory Board members George Eliades of Lowell and Paul Routhier of Groton said it will cost $4
million to acquire the site and complete renovations.
"It makes a lot of sense," Routhier said, adding the move brings the LRTA closer to its hub of activities,
which means there will be a savings on fuel costs.
According to Kennedy, the LRTA has the building under agreement with its current owner, Hale Street
Limited Partnership of Newton Lower Falls and the money to complete that phase of the project has
been appropriated by the federal government.
"It's like this building dropped out of heaven for us," beamed Kennedy. "It is far superior to our current
location and really meets all our needs."
The other major phase of the project is a 450-car, $6 million parking garage now under construction --
over the tracks at the Gallagher terminal.
Once completed next June, the garage will expand parking facilities at the Gallagher to 1,200 spaces.
The state and federal governments each contributed $3 million to the project.
Kennedy said the shuttle system, which will complement LRTA plans to run buses later into the evening
and expand holiday service, will cost $345,000 annually.
Seventy-five percent is being picked up by the state and is in the proposed budget for the next fiscal
year.
Kennedy is still trying to secure the other 25 percent. Possible sources include the city, Lowell National
Historical Park and the private sector.
Three trolleys, manufactured in Wichita, Kansas, and costing $275,000 each, "are on the assembly line"
and should be in Lowell by June 1, Kennedy said.
The vision of Merrimack Street without black smoke-belching large buses clogging traffic is attractive to
downtown businesses.
"That's a good idea," said Janet Pitzer, Welles Emporium owner and Downtown Lowell Business
Association chairman. "It should also help two-way traffic on Merrimack Street, which is something
we'd like to see."
But bus-induced gridlock is not confined to Merrimack and Paige streets.
"They create gridlock throughout the downtown," said Eliades, the Advisory Board chairman. "The
entire downtown will be improved by removing them."
Pitzer also commended the LRTA for the trolley concept.
"Folks love to get on little trolleys," she said. "They would likely become an attraction."
For the past several months, Kennedy, a former Lowell mayor and city councilor, has met privately with
top city political, educational and business leaders to lobby support for the plan.
Their response, Kennedy said, has been "phenomenal."
"The implementation of this ambitious plan will require a strong partnership and commitment between the
federal, state and local governments, the private sector and the LRTA," Kennedy said.
© 2000 MediaNews Group, Inc.
All rights to republication of special dispatches herein are reserved.
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