By Brian M. Rafferty
Before the days of the Long Island Rail Road and the LIE, people still found a way to get from one end of Queens to the other — trolley cars.
Flushing Town Hall, home to the Flushing Council on Culture & the Arts, has reintroduced the trolley to connect such widespread Queens locales as Flushing, Bayside and Jamaica.
For several years, the trolley has covered the Flushing Freedom Mile loop, starting at Town Hall, at 137th Street and Northern Boulevard, then moving along Linden Place, Union Street, Bowne Street, Main Street, Roosevelt Avenue and a host of other street, stopping to see sights along the way.
Some of the locations the trolley passes on the Flushing Freedom Mile loop are the Latimer House, the Flushing YMCA, Bowne Street Church, St. George’s Church, Kingsland House and Bowne House. There is also a connection to the Flushing Meadows Corona Park trolley that makes stops at the Queens Museum, New York Hall of Science, Queens Theatre in the Park and the Queens Zoo.
This year new loops have been added to reach upward into Bayside and down into Jamaica.
The North Loop starts at Flushing Town Hall and proceeds up Northern Boulevard to Bell Boulevard, where it turns north and heads past the LIRR station, through the downtown Bayside shopping district, past the Bay Terrace Shopping Center and into Fort Totten, ending at the former Officer’s Club, occupied by the Bayside Historical Society.
The South Loop follows the same route as the Flushing Freedom Mile Loop, but then keeps heading south on Main Street, passing New York Hospital, the CUNY Law School and Maple Grove Cemetery before making a left onto Queens Boulevard headed for Jamaica Avenue. From there it goes past the LIRR station in Jamaica, King Manor Museum and Rufus King Park, the former Dutch Reform Church (which will soon be used as the Jamaica Center for Arts & Learning performing arts center), the Jamaica Multiplex movie theater and the central branch of the Queens Library before turning onto the Van Wyck Expressway for the trip back into Flushing.
“The response to this has been incredible,” said Lucy Davidson, director of arts services at Flushing Town Hall.
On Oct. 5, there were more than 200 people who showed up to ride the trolley.
“There is the potential that other cultural institutions could arrange their schedules to be open when the trolley comes bu on Sunday,” Davidson said. “We have to get people to understand that these cultural institutions are out there.”
The South Loop, which also includes the Flushing Freedom Mile, leaves at noon and returns at 1 p.m. The North Loop runs from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m., the local Flushing Freedom Mile Loop leaves at 2 p.m. and again at 2:30 p.m. The North Loop runs again at 3 p.m. and the South Loop closes out the day at 4 p.m., returning at 5 p.m.
Though the two new loops greatly expand the territory covered by the trolley, actual wear and tear on the vehicle and mileage remains about the same as when the trolley only ran in Flushing, Davidson said. Therefore, the operating expense is virtually unchanged, which is why the non-profit organization can afford to expand the routes.
The trolley ride is free, and people are welcome to step on or off at any point along the way. Considering that this free transportation link between Jamaica, Flushing and Bayside only runs for five hours, and only on Sundays, it is unlikely to draw too many commuters.
But Davidson said that the sheer volume of arts institutions that are along the way makes the trolley ride an exciting opportunity for those who may not get to Queens’ offerings as often as they feel they should.
“It just fun to think that it’s out there,’ she said of the trolley.
Want to know more? Got to www.flushingtownhall.org or call 463-7700, Ext. 222 on weekdays, Ext. 234 on weekends.
