This beloved Astoria attraction still only costs $1 after 25 years

Inflation touches just about everything, but not “Old 300.”

Astoria’s Riverfront Trolley is celebrating its 25th year on the Oregon coast, where it’s been pulling passengers along the Lower Columbia waterfront for the same cost since 1999: $1 a ride.

“I’m very proud that we’ve been able to keep that (price),” said Frank Kemp, maintenance coordinator for the trolley. “It’s because we have all volunteers that run it.”

Starting July 4, that $1 will allow riders to take the trolley along its full 3.2-mile route for the first time in years.

The trolley hadn’t run an uninterrupted route since June 2022, when a building owned by Buoy Beer collapsed near the tracks between Seventh and Eighth streets. For the last two seasons, the trolley carried passengers from Basin Street to Sixth Street, or between Ninth and 39th streets. With the demolition of most of the building complete, the trolley will carry passengers along its full route the rest of this summer.

The trolley’s tracks once carried trains traveling west from Portland and south to Seaside, but passenger traffic stopped in the early 1950s. Freight trains continued into the 1980s, Kemp said, but after those trains too stopped running, the city began looking at new uses for the tracks. Astoria’s then mayor, Willis Van Dusen, envisioned a trolley route, and a search committee went on the hunt for a suitable car.

The “Old 300″ was the 300th car off the American Car Company Line in St. Louis, built in 1913. It spent its early years as part of the trolley system for the city of San Antonio, Texas, until the trolleys were phased out in exchange for buses in the 1930s.

The Old 300 was saved and became part of the San Antonio Art Museum’s collection. In the 1980s, the trolley ended up in Lake Oswego, where it ran several years on the Willamette Shore Trolley line and as a static part of a trolley museum in Glenwood, Oregon, until the museum closed in 1995.

When Astoria’s trolley search committee found Old 300 in 1998, Kemp said, “it was in disrepair, bad disrepair.”

The trolley was taken to Astoria, where more than $20,000 and 3,000 work-hours went into its restoration. Electricians, carpenters and sailors who knew how to repair the trolley’s canvas roof all worked on the project.

“We’re in a logging and a fishing community,” Kemp said. “People have been doing so much with so little for so long, they can do anything with nothing. I’ve got a pool of people that when something’s wrong, and I can’t fix it, I call one of them.”

In 1999, Old 300 carried its first passengers through Astoria. Today, it carries about 40,000 riders each season.

The trolley travels up to 8 miles per hour on an east-to-west route along the southern shore of the Columbia River, from Basin Street (in front of the Astoria Riverfront Inn) to 39th Street (by the East Mooring Basin Boat Ramp).

There are 11 designated trolley stops along the way, but interested riders can also wave a dollar bill anywhere along the track, and the trolley will stop to offer a ride.

“We like them to waive $20 bills,” said Bill Montero, bookkeeper for the Riverfront Trolley Association, “but a $1 bill will work.”

Old 300 passes through the part of Astoria called Uniontown in the west end, then through the warehouse district, past the Maritime Museum and along the Astoria River Trail.

“When the trolley is traveling, (the conductor) will tell you the history of Astoria,” Montero said, “and Astoria being the oldest and wickedest city on the West Coast, … obviously, there’s just a lot of stuff to tell.”

You might hear about the Clatsop Tribe who first lived in the area. Or the time, from 1813 to 1818, when Astoria was owned by the English and known as Fort George. Or, in more recent history, about the filming of “The Goonies” and “Kindergarten Cop.”

“There’s so much to talk about,” Montero said. “There’s never a blank page.”

The Riverfront Trolley Association raises funds through fares and rider donations, ads on trolley kiosks, revenue sharing with cruise ships, and selling merchandise from the trolley car.

The nonprofit association’s biggest annual expenses are insurance and fuel. Though the trolley runs on electricity, there are no overhead wires along the tracks. A diesel-powered generator attached to a cart travels along the tracks with the trolley car, generating the electricity it needs to move.

Both Kemp and Montero also serve as trolley conductors, and both said it’s an honor to wear the trolley uniform.

“Never in my wildest dreams did I think I would be driving a 40,000-pound trolley down the tracks through downtown,” Kemp said. “I come from a railroading family, one generation removed, and I was always interested in it. That’s a big part of it for me. I feel that connection when I’m driving it.”

IF YOU GO: The Astoria Riverfront Trolley runs March through October, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday through Sunday, and 1-4 p.m. Monday, Tuesday and Thursday. Fares are $1 per boarding or $2 for all day rides. (Cash only.) The Old 300 also runs special themed rides around Halloween and Christmas and can be chartered outside regular service hours for private events for $150 per hour. For more information or real-time GPS tracking of the trolley’s location on the route, visit old300.org.

— Samantha Swindler covers features for The Oregonian/OregonLive and Here is Oregon. Reach her at sswindler@oregonian.com.

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