The trend of tourist-oriented shuttle or tour buses being made to resemble trolley cars/streetcars is believed to have begun around 1975, in the United States, although rare examples existed earlier.[2]
Tourist trolleys are used by bothmunicipal and private operators. Municipal operators may mix tourist trolleys in with the regular service bus fleet to add more visitor interest or attract attention to new routes. In many cities tourist trolleys are used as circulators.[3] Tourist trolleys are also run by private operators to carrytourists to popular destinations.
Tourist trolleys sometimes operate in places which also have streetcars. For example, tourist trolleys operate inPhiladelphia,[4] which also hasactual trolley service.[5]
Housatonic Area Regional Transit in the past had a trolley service in downtown Danbury, but service was later suspended. HARTransit purchased a new trolley-replica bus in June 2014.
^Wilkins, Van (Spring 1988). "Are These Buses? And if they aren't, what are they?".Bus World. Woodland Hills, California: Stauss Publications. pp. 26–28.ISSN0162-9689.
^A circulator operates a simplified route limited to popular destinations on a fixed schedule with a reduced or free fare. See ref [1] for definition.
