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A Molly's Trolly drives by the Duquesne Incline station on West Carson Street on Feb. 18, 2017. Molly's Trolleys ended its service late last year after 22 years in business.
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Trolley tours return to Pittsburgh as new service launches to fill a void

Lake Fong/Post-Gazette

Trolley tours return to Pittsburgh as new service launches to fill a void

Two visitors from Boston and four from Cleveland Saturday climbed aboard the brand-spanking gleaming white Pittsburgh Trolley Works tour bus that made its first rounds this weekend from Southside Works.

The fleet of trolley buses is an expansion of the Pittsburgh Tour Co., filling the void left when the owners of Molly’s Trolleys ended that 20-year run late last year.

Vince and Manon LaMonica expanded their business, which has operated double-decker, open-top tour buses around the city since 2009, to include trolley service in time for spring.

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“We had a lot of requests” from would-be Molly’s patrons, Mr. LaMonica said. “The trolleys will allow us to extend the season” when it is too cold outside to ride on top of the double-deckers.

Tourists disembark from the Molly's Trolly at the Duquesne Incline on Mt. Washington in this February 2017 file photo.
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Molly's Trolleys to close at the end of the year

Only one passenger on two trips Saturday was from Pittsburgh, and Mr. LaMonica said that’s not unusual in the tour bus business.

“I love giving these tours partly because I meet people from all over the world,” he said.

Barbara and Dennis Itri from Boston were in town for a visit, which was to include the Pirates’ home opener Monday. Ron and Julie Ferrara, their son Ronnie and his friend Vinny Doran drove in from Cleveland to see Mr. Ferrara’s favorite hockey team, the Montreal Canadiens, play the Penguins.

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They come to Pittsburgh for a Canadiens game every year because Pittsburgh’s a lot closer than Montreal, he said.

As the trolley rolled down Carson Street, across the West End Bridge to the North Shore, across the Andy Warhol Bridge to Downtown to the Strip District and then to Oakland, Mr. LaMonica drove and narrated the trip, pointing out murals, inclines, bridges, historic buildings, institutions, bars and restaurants and sculptures, noting famous facts and trivia along the way — including that the Big Mac and the Ferris wheel both had local origins.

At Chatham University, he told the passengers that the student body there is still overwhelmingly female, prompting one of the Cleveland teenagers to pipe up, “That’s where I’m going.”

Double-decker season starts April 14. That bus lets people get off as it continues on its way. They can pick up a later double-decker as part of one fare. The trolley fleet can be rented for private tours but the regular one is a contained 90-minute ride that costs $25, $15 per child between ages 2 and 10.

Through April it will run only on Friday, Saturday and Sunday but after that it will run seven days a week, Mr. LaMonica said. It departs from the Southside Works, on Sidney Street between 26th and 27th Streets, every two hours between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. Tickets can be bought online at www.pghtours.com or at the beginning of the tour.

Diana Nelson Jones: djones@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1626.

First Published: March 31, 2018, 11:54 p.m.

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A Molly's Trolly drives by the Duquesne Incline station on West Carson Street on Feb. 18, 2017. Molly's Trolleys ended its service late last year after 22 years in business.  (Lake Fong/Post-Gazette)
Lake Fong/Post-Gazette
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