MEMPHIS, Tenn. — MATA interim CEO Baccara Mauldin said it's going to cost more than a million dollars to get trolleys running again.
This means there's no definite answer on when trolley services will start back up in Downtown Memphis.
The shutdown is not only hurting MATA's employees. Businesses in the downtown area are feeling the effects too.
Daniel Kindred works at the Arcade Restaurant on Main Street in Downtown. He said now he has to catch a ride just to get to work. Kindred said he used to catch the trolley at 6 a.m. Now he will have to spend extra funds that are not in his budget.
"It's really an inconvenience because it's a lot of us that catch the trolley," he said. "It's about 30 of us that catch the trolley that works down on Main Street. It's not expensive on the trolley, but getting a ride, catching an Uber, that's very expensive."
Mauldin told ABC24 MATA had to abruptly shutdown the trolley services Sunday, Aug. 18, due to safety and budget reasons. She said they have six fleets that are in need of a new braking system. Mauldin said in order to restore trolley services, it will cost $200,000 for each fleet totaling $1.2 million. She said at this time, they do not have funds to cover those repairs.
"If we can't safely operate the trolley system, we don't need to operate, and so we put it on pause until such time that we can absorb those repairs," Mauldin said.
According to Mauldin, trolley services usually serve nearly 402,000 people in Memphis each year. She said they could save $18 million with their proposed plan to reduce routes and cut more than 200 staff members.
The Downtown Neighborhood Association of Memphis president, Jerred Price, told ABC24 that MATA shutting down is putting more stress on businesses who are already in bad shape.
"We are hurting downtown businesses that are already hurting right now, we are hurting downtown tourism and we're hurting the lifeline of our downtown community," Price said.
Price said he wants to ask MATA how are cities such as New Orleans and San Francisco able to keep their trolley services going, but not here in Memphis.
MATA is expected to finalize their budget on Aug. 27. Mauldin told ABC24 on Aug. 28 employees will be notified if they have a job or not. She said the actual timeframe for layoffs could be as late as November.
An official with MATA said they want to encourage people to take advantage of the Groove on Demand. They said the rideshare service will cover locations along the trolley line and the downtown area.