The City of Laguna Beach, Calif. is set to restart its summer trolley service on June 25 after more than a year of closure.
The free service—which came to a halt last year during the COVID-19 pandemic—will work to transport Laguna Beach residents and visitors to art festivals, beaches, and the downtown area from various locations.
The service was originally stopped on March 19, 2020, due to California’s stay-at-home order, but with the economy’s reopening, the city is expecting a surge of visitors to its popular beaches and downtown areas.
Riders will have the option of taking three different routes, and free or low-cost parking spaces will be available at the trolley pickup areas. The service is intended to help those looking to go downtown from spending time and money searching for parking spots.
The Summer Breeze route, which will fetch riders every 30 minutes on Laguna Canyon Road from a free parking lot at Brandman University in Irvine, will make stops at art festivals and downtown. The weekend-only route runs from 10 a.m. to 11:30 p.m.
The Canyon route, which will retrieve passengers every 20 minutes on Laguna Canyon Road from LCAD on weekends. It will board passengers from its Act V parking lots to summer art festivals and downtown weeklong from 8:30 a.m. to 11:30 p.m.
The seven-day-a-week Coastal route will board riders every 30 minutes on Coast Highway between North Laguna and Heisler Park, downtown, South Laguna/Mission Hospital, and Ritz Carlton in Dana Point. The route runs from 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 p.m.,
“We expect that the trolley will be a popular option to travel through Laguna Beach and to/from our peripheral parking lots outside of the downtown area,” public works director Mark McAvoy told The Epoch Times via email. “The daily average ridership fluctuates, but in summer 2019, there were approximately 430,000 total trips on the Coastal, Canyon and Summer Breeze routes.”
Riders can download the Laguna Beach Trolley Tracker for up-to-the-minute updates on arrivals and departures, as well as map and service alerts.
Each trolley can seat up to 30 people.
Those looking to ride the trolley will be required to wear a mask regardless of vaccination status as federal law requires them on public transit.
Downtown visitors seeking downtown parking can use the Laguna Beach Parking app to find available spots. Users can pay for parking through their smartphone, with no transaction fees this summer.
