In October 2013, the newly appointed Executive Director of the Amherst Business Improvement District, Sarah la Cour, wanted to try something different.

The Amherst Business Improvement District (BID) is a non-profit organization formed in 2011 with the intent to increase economic activity in Amherst by holding events and services for Amherst residents and businesses. But that wasn’t enough for la Cour, who said that the Amherst BID “realized on Parents Weekend that Amherst students don’t really know about downtown.” She thought that transporting UMass students directly from their dorms to downtown Amherst would benefit businesses even more.

The organization planned to buy two heated trolleys to run a nine-stop, 25-minute loop on weekend evenings, “dorm to downtown,” as la Cour put it, entirely free of charge. La Cour said the purpose of the trolley was to encourage UMass students to “experience town in daylight hours.”

The service began around Thanksgiving, ran until winter break and is back for the new semester. The trolley is funded by the Amherst BID, but has not been in action long enough to determine an exact cost.

Is this in competition with the Pioneer Valley Transit Authority? La Cour said that she is not concerned about low ridership, and said she, “feels like we’re offering a different service. It has different stops, a different route and the PVTA doesn’t run on Thatcher Way. We worked closely with UMass Transit to develop this. It’s a gap service, which means that it operates when they have less buses on the road.”

The trolley is scheduled to run until 9 p.m. on Thursdays and Fridays, and 8 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays. According to UMass freshman Michelle Lensch, “The bus runs here until like five on the weekends.”       Lensch said, “I have (heard of the trolley), I’m not really sure about the schedule or anything… it would be nice if they put something out.”

When a Collegian correspondent was sent to try the trolley, it failed to stop and accept riders, twice passing her in an almost empty vehicle.

The trolley is “just getting ridership going. We put an ad in the Collegian, we have posters up in all the residential halls and we’re working on getting music outfitted on it. We’re thinking it could be popular,” la Cour said.

The trolley does seem to be something different. La Cour hopes it will succeed to “engage students in the downtown area in a fun way.”

Ariel Dickerman can be reached at [email protected]