Making a case for alternative transport

Tony Bennett left his heart in a city where “little cable cars climb halfway to the stars.” Rock Hill doesn’t have quite the access to celestial bodies that San Francisco does, but there’s no reason we can’t have the equivalent of little cable cars here.

The Rock Hill City Council this week gave final approval to the Knowledge Park project, clearing the way for work to begin in earnest on the rebirth of the site of the old Rock Hill Printing & Finishing Co., aka The Bleachery. The history of getting this project to the point where the site is ready to go and governmental bodies have agreed to start building something is long and tortured, but Tuesday’s council vote marked a special moment.

It was the result of years of hard work, primarily by the city, and, more recently, the teamwork of many of the community’s business leaders to fashion a public-private partnership to get the project launched. Now the plan to rejuvenate Rock Hill’s central downtown core, the so-called Textile Corridor, might really take off.

And somewhere in those plans you will find mention of trolleys.

As envisioned by advocates of this quaint transport system, a trolley line would be installed to link Winthrop University, Knowledge Park, downtown Rock Hill and, eventually, points beyond that core area. Planners see trolleys as a way to tie these disparate parts together while providing a safe and reliable way for people to get around.

Trolleys also would serve as economic generators, enticing people to ride to Knowledge Park to shop or hop one downtown for dinner. Ultimately, the system also could encourage development along the route, much like rail lines encouraged the building of stations, stores and eventually new towns.

That, of course, is a big order for “little cable cars,” and some have scoffed at the idea that a trolley system would do much to enhance the project. The Rock Hill school district, in fact, threatened not to sign on to the plan if it included trolleys (although the board relented in the end).

The skeptics no doubt see a downtown trolley as a cute curiosity but not a real, grownup way to get from one place to another. But others take the idea more seriously.

A delegation from the city, including the mayor, recently traveled to Cleveland to look at that city’s trolley system. Another delegation almost went to Little Rock to check out the trolleys there, but they missed their plane in Atlanta. Making the best of the situation, they arranged a tour of the public transportation system there.

It’s a mistake to view trolleys as nothing more than novelty rides. Cities around the world have demonstrated that.

The streetcars of New Orleans are not only part of the city’s soul but also a practical form of transportation used by regular folks every day.

In Lisbon, Portugal, cable cars pack tourists and locals together on trips up and down the city’s steep cobblestone streets all day long. They also provide a way home for drunken revelers at 4 a.m.

Cities in nearly every state have had trolley systems at one time or another, and many are still running. And a number of cities have installed completely new systems.

(By the way, cable cars run along a track powered by underground cables that are attached to huge winding wheels at a central powerhouse. The cable cars hitch onto the cables from underneath the carriage and have no means of propulsion themselves. Trolleys also run on tracks but are powered by electric motors that get their juice from poles that attach to overhead wires. San Francisco has the only cable car system in the nation.)

So, Rock Hill planners have plenty of examples they can cite to show that trolleys are a practical addition to the city. But beyond that, they also need to sell the aspect of fun.

Trolleys are cool. They put people, often strangers, together. They allow riders the luxury of sitting and watching the world go by without having to worry about driving. And you can text on a trolley.

How is that different from riding a bus? It’s hard to say, maybe intangible, but different nonetheless, more romantic.

Tony Bennett probably wouldn’t sing about “big old Greyhound buses that cart lots of crazy cusses” the way he sings about cable cars. Trolleys just have more panache.

So, OK, all together now: “I left my heart in Knowledge Park ...”

This story was originally published July 5, 2015 at 10:19 PM with the headline "Making a case for alternative transport."