Community News
Free Summer rides on the Balboa Peninsula Trolley
by: Newport Beach PIO
Posted: June 19, 2017
NEWPORT BEACH...The City of Newport Beach will offer a free transportation option on the Balboa Peninsula during busy summer weekends. The Balboa Peninsula Trolley beginning service on Saturday, June 17 to help visitors and locals easily travel along and explore the Peninsula.
The trolley is scheduled to operate each Saturday and Sunday through September 3, 2017. It will also be in service on the Fourth of July holiday. The hours of operation are from 7:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m.
With 18 designated stops along the route, trolley users will be able to comfortably explore the Peninsula and its wide range of retail and dining opportunities or spend the day at the beach without having to worry about finding parking.
“During the summer, the Peninsula often becomes a challenge for those seeking parking to visit the beach or many of our wonderful restaurants and businesses,” Councilmember Diane Dixon stated. “The trolley allows our residents and visitors an opportunity to move around the Peninsula without having to worry about finding a place to park or losing their parking place. This service has been envisioned for many years and I am ecstatic we finally found a way to make it happen.”
Free parking is available for trolley users in the lower Hoag Hospital parking lot at Hoag Drive and Coast Highway. A trolley is scheduled to pick up users at every stop in 15-minute intervals, depending on conditions. Users are invited to climb aboard or exit the trolley at any of the stops along the way to and from the Balboa Pier and Fun Zone area. For those planning a day at the beach, the trolley can accommodate bicycles, surfboards under six-feet long, and beach gear.
Users can obtain real-time locations of the trolleys online at peninsulatrolley.com or by downloading the mobile app, Ride Systems, and searching for Newport Beach from its list of agencies.
The City received funding for the trolley service through a competitive grant process from the Orange County Transportation Authority’s Measure M2 Project V-Community Based Transit Circulators. The City was awarded $685,454 in grant funding for a seven-year operating period and is required to match the funding by 12 percent. The grant program was provided for local agencies to develop transit services to meet the needs in areas not adequately served by regional transit.