By Matt Donegan

Staff writer

FORT PIERCE - The city is paying more than $32 for each person who rides the new downtown Fort Pierce trolley.

After a little less than two months since the free service began, only an average of 60 people per week have ridden the $120,000 trolley, said city public works director Bob Hood.

In August, the Fort Pierce Redevelopment Agency awarded a $101,376 contract to the city to operate the trolley. The amount covers drivers, fuel, insurance and maintenance for a year.

Breaking the cost figure down, the city spends $1,949 per week to run the trolley, which, when divided by 60 riders a week, means every individual rider costs the city $32.48, and that's not even factoring in the cost of the trolley.

By comparison, a one-way adult ticket on a Greyhound bus from Melbourne to downtown Miami costs only $2 more.

From 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. weekdays, the trolley runs on a 20-minute circuitous route, stopping first at the community center, then the Seven Gables House/Manatee Center, Sunrise Theatre, C&C parking lot on U.S. 1 at Atlantic Avenue, and finally Marina Square.

At last week's Fort Pierce Redevelopment Agency Meeting, Mr. Hood discussed expanding the route to include locations on Hutchinson Island. He said public works would present the FPRA with a few optional routes at its Dec. 20 meeting.

Flip Gates, president of the Downtown Business Association, voiced his opposition to the trolley, which he said has so far been "a failure."

"It's costing a lot of money to operate the trolley and the DBA thinks that money would be better spent elsewhere," he said.

The trolley caused an issue for the FPRA before it ever even got on the road.

Fort Pierce acquired the 35-foot, 20,100-pound trolley in February, but negotiation issues with the Council on Aging of St. Lucie, which was supposed to operate the trolley, pushed back the estimated service start date to October.