The road has been bumpy since Monterey-Salinas Transit first won a $1.7 million federal grant for a wireless electric trolley two and a half years ago.
Not long after, the grant funds were frozen as part of a federal legal challenge of California's pension reform, and the trolley project stalled.
Although the pension reform dispute is ongoing, the feds released the project funds in February. And on April 20, crews began installing the electric trolley charging equipment at Tyler and Pearl streets in Monterey.
The trolley will shuttle passengers between downtown Monterey and Cannery Row, one of the most popular tourist routes.
It's not the first zero-emission public transit project: San Francisco cable cars are pulled along by underground cables, and electric buses are plugged in at charging stations. What makes this project different, and the first of its kind in California, is that it's charged wirelessly in short bursts along its route.
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