A Streetcar Named Desire

Whoever you are,
I have always depended on the kindness of strangers

The Claremont Trolley came to our attention a couple of times this past week. The first time was a brief piece on the back page of the Courier and with apologies, we will quote it in full:

TROLLEY NEWS

Not to nitpick, but a Claremont resident recently informed us of something relating to Trolley courtesy.

It appears Trolley-riders often "pull the cord" to alert the driver they would like to exit at the next stop. this action apparently causes the ringing of a very loud bell. After a bit of investigation, it has been learned that the Trolley driver will make all 4 stops, whether the bell is rung or not.

From our experience riding the trolley in question, that's what the sign says to do: pull the cord. Our feeling is, if they didn't want to have that element of trolley-realism, to give the rider the full trolley-experience, they wouldn't have the cord. What is unquestionably lame about the Claremont Trolley is that you can't just pull the cord to be let off anywhere it stops anyway, like the San Francisco cable cars. Now that would be neat, and might increase ridership.

Ridership needs increasing, and that brings us to our second interesting fact about the Trolley: it is a City Staff transportation benefit even more than a public transportation benefit; another example of the kindness of strangers to City Staff.

According to our very reliable source, City Community Services Director Scott Carroll was seen hanging from the strap last Friday noon, and getting off at the "Walters" stop. He was wearing his spiffy white slacks and a dark blue City shirt of celebrating some City administration or another. It struck us a little funny that he of all people should be riding the otherwise empty coach. Probably he is trying to get the ridership numbers up. Since his department operates the Trolley, we are sure the driver dutifully logged one rider from (we assume) the distant regions of the Metrolink lot to Bonita at Yale.

By the way, don't under any circumstances plan on getting off the Trolley at the Metrolink lot at night. The night ride is a creepy enough ride anyway, empty and hollow as the carriage always is, with it's shiny wooden benches and slats that show you the floor almost everywhere. But that far-corner parking lot stop is downright scary. One anemic light barely illuminates the area. There is a bike rack, and one of those mysterious metal boxes that seem to populate public parking lots everywhere. But the cement disappears rather too close into shadowy and overgrown trees right next to the similarly-shadowy and overgrown shrubs along the track. You know there is no humanity between you and the dark and cold steel buildings of the college maintenance yard. Except. You do know for certain that if there were a criminal in Claremont, and you know it would be a "he" and he would be big and burly and rough and merciless, well, that criminal would be hiding out in those very nearby shadowy shrubs. And you'd be left way out there by your lone self as the Trolley leaned away from the left turn onto First Street and headed towards the safety of the town.

And when the criminal without mercy revealed himself to you, all you could say would be, "Whoever you are, I have always depended on the kindness of strangers."