Coral Gables’ Trolleys: A Green Success in Dollars and Energy

Making public transportation infrastructure work while an economy is still good is usually a smart move.  And Coral Gables’s local trolley system is surely also a green and efficient way as well to move people in an often busy and popular downtown neighborhood.  The modern trolley service in this svelte greater Miami community was only initiated as recently as 2003, but when you come here it feels like it must be a feature of the town that was here forever, it fits and works so well.

(credit: H. Peat)

Interestingly, when the service started up it was thought it would serve only about a thousand riders a day; instead, the City of Coral Gables now estimates the ridership to run around five times that amount.  Not bad in an upscale locale where everyone owns car (or two), and especially a good figure in cost- and energy-conscious times.  The vintage-style green and yellow trolley cars run on weekdays as an inernal circulator on Ponce de Leon Blvd. from Douglas Rd. Metrorail to S.W. 8th Street.  In case you’re not familiar with the layout of the city’s center, this route puts the pedestrian with two blocks of nearly every business in downtown Coral Gables.

Additional conveniences that make the trolley system a Gables bonus:  an Express Srvice runs on mornings and afternoons between the Douglas Station, downtown stop and 8th Street with limited stops.  If you’re traveling even further beyond Gables bounaries, then you can take advantage of the fact that from the Douglas Station you can then  can connect to the Miami-Dade Transit System via Metrorail’s 22 stations, plus extensive bus and shuttle services. Douglas Station connects directly to bus routes 22 ,37 ,40 ,42 ,48 ,65x ,72 and J.

The Gables trolleys with their centralized locations and ease of getting around minus a car also operate on efficient hybrid-electric power, even as they emulate the retrospective styling of their predecessors.  For getting around a sometime very busy downtown they’re the fun choice and did we mention, the free choice too? 

Coral Gables Trolleys – (305) 460-5070