Denver Trolley

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Updates from the Trolley...
Stay Safe & Healthy!

The Latest from the Denver Trolley!

October 15, 2021: We hope that all of you — friends of the Denver Trolley — are doing well and feeling good, and staying safe and healthy! The Trolley is itching to go — our crew has been working hard to get the Trolley back in shape and ready to roll down the tracks along the South Platte River again!
Our target date is...

***October 31, 2021***

We will operate the Trolley for our Broncos stadium shuttle that day, starting from Confluence Park at 12:25 PM (two hours before kickoff) and heading up to Empower Field at Mile High right until kickoff. Then we'll head back from the stadium starting at the beginning of the fourth quarter. Come join us, buy tix right at the Trolley on game day, and let's get this Trolley rolling!

NOTE: As a rail operation, we abide by the federal regulations and mandates of the Transportation Security Administration, as well as our own practices to promote the health of our riders, volunteers, and community. As such...

***MASKS THAT COVER YOUR MOUTH AND NOSE
ARE CURRENTLY REQUIRED
ON THE TROLLEY AND ON THE TROLLEY PLATFORMS***

Thank you for working with us to keep each other safe and healthy.

Sending #TrolleyLove to the World...
and Sharing an Article in Denverite!

April 27, 2021: We hope that you are reading this and that you are healthy and safe and doing all of the things we all need to do to help the world get healthy again. In a normal year, we would be getting ready for our regular season to start in about a month — recruiting and training volunteers, hiring seasonal staff, sprucing up the Trolley, and pumping up the #TrolleyEnergy in Denver! But we haven't had a normal year in a while, so, while we wait out the pandemic, we are busy doing some important upgrades on the Trolley, using this opportunity to get the Trolley in tip-top shape for when we get to roll again...hopefully in 2021!

Check this space for updates on the Trolley...In the meantime, check out this great article in Denverite today by Kevin Beaty:

***The Denver Trolley Gets a Facelift in a Year without Riders***

Kevin got some great photos last week of our volunteers at work, and our Trolley from the inside out! Thanx, Denverite!

Dave Muggli rehabs some rotten floorboards in the old Denver Trolley, which has sat outside by Confluence Park for three decades. April 22, 2021.
Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite

Thank you to all of our members, volunteers, and Trolley-lovers who donated on Colorado Gives Day!

Your support helps provide the Denver Trolley, and other Colorado nonprofits, with necessary funds. Thank you for your ongoing generosity, kindness, and support!

We Will Be Rooting for the Broncos in 2020…
Just Not on the Trolley!

August 25, 2020: To our Trolley Visitors and Fellow Denver Broncos Fans…Thank you for visiting our website! We hope that all of you are healthy and safe in the midst of this COVID-19 global pandemic. For 31 years, we have run the Trolley up and down the tracks along the South Platte River…On home-game football Sundays (and sometimes Mondays and Thursdays and even Saturdays), we took thousands of you to up to the stadium to watch our Broncos win and win and win (and, once in a while, lose a game here or there). This year, we had to cancel our regular Trolley operations for the safety of our passengers and volunteers. Regretfully, we also have to cancel our Broncos game-day football shuttles. At this point, the Denver Broncos have already announced that there will be no fans in the stadium at the September 14th opening game against the Tennessee Titans, and we don’t know what will happen later in the season. But, whether or not fans are eventually able to attend games, we will not be operating on game days in 2020. We will definitely be rooting for the Broncos this season — for their health and for their success — we just won’t be doing it on the Trolley. We look forward to rolling out the Trolley again in 2021! Go Broncos!

The Trolley Will Roll Again...in 2021!

August 1, 2020: To our Trolley Visitors...We are hopeful that all of you visiting our website are healthy and safe and doing your best as we collectively endure this COVID-19 global pandemic. We had hoped to be able to once again rev up the motor of Denver Trolley Car #1977 in 2020, as we have for 31 years, and roll it out on the tracks along the South Platte River. We had hoped to give riders the historical, cultural, and educational experience of what it was like in the 19th and early 20th centuries to get around the city of Denver by rail. We had hoped that at some point this season we would be able to operate and share the Trolley with visitors from around the country and around the world.

But not this season. The world is dealing with much larger and more urgent health issues that will prevent us from operating the Denver Trolley this season. We want to operate. We want to welcome all of you with a big, loud, hearty "All aboard"! But we can't. The risks are too great and the knowledge is still being developed. To paraphrase a biologist/infectious disease researcher, "If you don't solve the biology," we can't operate the Trolley. Well, the biology is not solved yet, and with an operation that naturally invites interaction, the risks of virus presence and transmission are high.

Though we won't operate the Trolley this season, we do want to continue to share knowledge and experiences, and interact with all of you in whatever way we can. We are creating a "Citizen Page" for you to contribute your pictures, memories, and thoughts about Trolleys, and we are working on ways to continue to share the Trolley throughout 2020, though from a distance.

Check back here for updates, follow us on Twitter (@DenverTrolley), and visit us on Facebook (DenverTrolley)! In the meantime, here are some websites we are using to get information and updates on the virus and the fight to eradicate it, and resources for keeping up our cultural interests while we are playing our part in supporting the health of our community:

• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
• Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment
• Denver Department of Public Health and Environment
• Rocky Mountain PBS

Also, the Scientific and Cultural Facilities District (SCFD), a strong supporter of the Trolley, has gathered resources for fun and interesting activities/tours you can participate in from home. Check them out at this link.

We look forward to seeing you on the Trolley one day soon...Until then, we send you lots of #TrolleyLove!

March 27, 2020: We are looking forward to having all of you aboard the Trolley one day soon, and calling out, "All aboard!", before we pull out of our Confluence Park station stop to take you on a beautiful ride along the South Platte River. At this time of year, we are normally well into our planning for the Trolley season. With a target start date of the Thursday of Memorial Day weekend (May 21 this year), we are usually recruiting volunteer operators, hiring seasonal staff, working to make the Trolley look awesome again, and doing necessary mechanical work to get the Trolley and tracks ready for the season.

This year is different. Denver and Colorado and the country and the world are fighting the COVID-19 pandemic. We hope that all of you who are visiting our website are doing well and feeling well, and will smile at the pictures and videos here of the Trolley in action. Right now, we have suspended all activities on the Trolley, including recruiting, hiring, and mechanical operations. As Denver is on a stay-at-home order, we want to honor the health and safety of all of the members of our organization and community.

We don't know what the next weeks and months will look like. We are eager to get the Trolley rolling, and we will do so when our city and our community are out of danger of the COVID-19 virus. Please look for updates here, on Twitter (@DenverTrolley), and on Facebook (DenverTrolley). In the meantime, here are some websites we are using to get information and updates on the virus and the fight to eradicate it, and resources for keeping up our cultural interests while we are playing our part in supporting the health of our community:

• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
• Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment
• Denver Department of Public Health and Environment
• Rocky Mountain PBS

Also, the Scientific and Cultural Facilities District (SCFD), a strong supporter of the Trolley, has gathered resources for fun and interesting activities/tours you can participate in from home. Check them out at this link.

We look forward to seeing you again soon on the Trolley!

The Denver Trolley is gearing up for our 2020 season!

The Trolley's 2020 Riverfront Season has been postponed due to the ongoing situation with COVID-19. Please check back for updates.

We look forward to having you aboard the Trolley again soon!

ALL ABOARD!

We are missing the Trolley right now, as Denver and the world get healthy...In the meantime, check out this great video of the Trolley from our friends at Tucker's Trains and Travels! They met us at the Rocky Mountain Train Show, and then visited us in September 2019...this great video of their adventures (posted on their YouTube channel) captures the excitement of a ride on the Denver Trolley!

Thank you to Colorado & Company for having us on again,
on October 7, 2019, to talk about the Trolley rolling this fall!

We were featured on Colorado & Company on July 15, 2019!

Nick Isenberg, journalist and host of "The Tactile Traveler," a series focused on empowering blind and low-vision people to explore the world, and helping sighted people to see the world in a new way, did a piece on the Trolley for Episode #1 of his podcast! The Trolley piece begins at 17:30 of the podcast:

Check this out! 9News reported on our Opening Day 2019:

And so did CBS in Denver:

Are you interested in learning about volunteering with the Denver Trolley?
Click here to read about volunteering on the Trolley.
The Denver Trolley depends on volunteers to keep the Trolley rolling each year.

See the Trolley on 9News!
Read about the Trolley in the Denver Post.

Groupon: All vouchers purchased through Groupon for the Denver Trolley are valid through the last day of the regular operating season, September 7, 2020. Click here for the schedule.

You can help keep Denver’s electric transit history alive by becoming a member and a volunteer. Click here for more details and like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter for the most up-to-date information.

Thank you to all who joined us on August 8 and 10, 2019, for our annual Car 25 celebration! Special thank you to the Lakewood Heritage Center for a wonderful partnership in making this happen every year!

Thank you for joining us
and the Greenway Foundation in Confluence Park
for a wonderful 2019 Citizens for the River Festival!

On July 25, 2019, five months before their special day, members of the Society of Santa took a ride on the Trolley!

Ride into history with the Denver Trolley!

Enjoy Your Ride!

The Denver Trolley at Confluence Park
Ride an open trolley car along the scenic South Platte Greenway and see Denver from an open-air “Breezer”! Our Trolley operates from Confluence Park (REI), past the Downtown Aquarium, Children’s Museum of Denver, and Broncos Stadium at Mile High.

Make a tax-deductible donation today to help with the refurbishment of the Trolley car body and upkeep of the Trolley track. Read more about ways to donate or simply donate below via PayPal (which also takes credit cards):

Our operators are very knowledgeable about the history of the area in which we operate and delight in relating some interesting facts which even some of the locals don’t know. Where can you go and what can you see and do on the Denver Trolley? Join us for an enjoyable ride back in time before the Interstate and jet planes, back to the time when Grandma was a girl being courted by Grandpa as they took a ride on a Breezer! As our Trolley is an open-air “Breezer,” weather is a factor and we may not operate should the weather be unfavorable.

If you would like to join the Denver Tramway Heritage Society, fill out and mail us your membership application. If you live in the Denver area and would like to learn to operate our Trolley, call the office, e-mail us, or contact our volunteer coordinator and we will set up a training day for you. Volunteers act as ambassadors to the city of Denver, taking visitors on a tour back into the history of the city and providing a window into how Denver came to be the growing city it is today. It’s really fun…join us!

Photo courtesy Colorado Railroad Museum

This is a photo of the original Denver Tramways sightseeing car sitting in front of the famous Brown Place Hotel. The picture was taken about 1906 and was used on the cover of sheet music entitled “Seeing Denver.” The fare back then was 50 cents for a two-hour/25-mile trip. While we cannot duplicate the original route, our “Breezer” proudly carries on the same tradition — come ride with us!

Historic Streetcar Systems of Colorado

Are you curious about the streetcar systems that operated in Colorado? Check out this report produced by the Colorado Department of Transportation detailing all of the historical streetcar systems in Colorado. The research and report were undertaken to address the issue of "unanticipated discoveries" of historical streetcar tracks during construction and paving projects — to be able to plan ahead for the impact of construction on historically meaningful streetcar artifacts, and to have a plan for preservation. There is a wealth of information, maps, photographs, archives of historical documents, and lots of other products of this research to keep everyone reading on and on and on...Click on the title above or right here to check out the report!

UPDATE: We look forward to operating our regular season again in 2022. If the world continues to get healthy, we will prepare for Trolley operations starting Thursday, May 26, 2022!

THANK YOU for a WONDERFUL 2019 SEASON!
Our 2019 season started on Memorial Day weekend and ended on Labor Day. Thank you for all of your support — through your visits, your donations, and your sharing of photos of the Trolley! In 2019 we were joined by schools, businesses, families, friends, music fans, and even Santas aboard the Trolley! When you visit the Trolley, you take a ride back into the history of Denver, a special story about the development of what continues to be a growing, diverse, and exciting city. We will roll again in 2020! Come join us for a ride on the Trolley starting Thursday, May 21, 2020 --- bring friends, family, out-of-town visitors --- it's a ride that you won't forget! We also run for special events throughout and after the season. Check here for the latest information, as well as on Facebook (DenverTrolley) and on Twitter (@DenverTrolley). See you on the Trolley!

Starring ... the Denver Trolley!
Check out the videos below and take a virtual ride on the Denver Trolley!

Check out this great piece about the Denver Trolley by Ernie Bjorkman at KWGN Channel 2!

Click here to see the video and article on Telemundo Denver!

Save Denver Tramway Company Car .04 Colorado Preservation, Inc. named Denver Tramway Company .04 one of Colorado's 2015 Endangered Places. We are working with the City of Arvada to make sure that it is moved to the "saved" category. Watch this great video to learn more:

UPDATE: We look forward to operating our regular season again in 2022, and will update this space accordingly. If the world continues to get healthy, we will prepare for Trolley operations starting Thursday, May 26, 2022!

Riverfront Operation Days: Thursday, May 26, 2022, through Monday, September 5, 2022. Thursday through Monday (weather-permitting)
Time: 11:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. (departing every 30 minutes from Confluence Park behind REI; last departure at 5:00 p.m.)
Cost: $5 (age 13 and older), $2 (age 4 through 12), FREE (age 3 and younger)

The Denver Tramway Heritage Society receives important funding through the Scientific & Cultural Facilities District. Thank you to the SCFD, voters, and taxpayers!

Denver Tramway Heritage Society
PO Box 216
Severance CO 80546-0216

(303) 458-6255

(please leave us a message!)