Seniors await trolley

Denise Cardinal

Monday, Jan. 26, 1998 | 10:39 a.m.

Senior citizens living in 12 senior complexes in Las Vegas may soon be able to catch a ride to the grocery store or drugstore for only 25 cents a trip.

The Las Vegas City Council will decide today whether to expand the routes of its City Trolley system to better service senior citizens.

Currently the trolley bus runs from the downtown bus station to Meadows Mall and back, and from the downtown bus station to the Lucky grocery store on East Charleston Boulevard and back.

The new routes would start and finish at different senior complexes, instead of the downtown bus station, and bring riders to grocery stores, drug stores and shopping centers.

Senior complexes included in the proposed new routes are: Sunrise Villas, Clark Towers, Carefree Living, Sartini Plaza and Annex, Downs Tower, Stella Fleming, McCants Terrace, Monsignor Shallows, Rulon Earl Mobile Manor, Lake Tonopah Apartments, Aida Brents Gardens and other apartment complexes along the way.

The idea for the new routes stemmed from a series of meetings City Councilman Michael McDonald held at senior centers. Though the CAT bus does service many of the centers, residents find the $2 charge to be too much at times, according to city documents.

"We want to provide them door-to-door service," said Bob Hasegawa, manager of the city's transportation services department. "They need transportation for the simple things like getting food or going to the drugstore."

The Trolley services are available to all residents, who would pay the full price of 50 cents to ride. About 78 percent of the Trolley's riders are older than 65.

If approved by the City Council, the issue would then go before the Regional Transportation Commission. If approved by the RTC, the new routes would go into effect on Feb. 13 -- the day after the RTC meeting.