Eight-year old Jamir Aores and his five cousins spent last Sunday afternoon riding a 1947 historic trolley -- right in University City.
Adorned with paper menorahs, Kwanzaa posters and Christmas ornaments swinging from the windows, the historic streetcar is one of two currently running free of charge in the area for the holiday season.
Traditionally, the cars emerge in Center City during the winter months as a cheerful alternative to the year-round drab of SEPTA buses.
But when construction threatened the possibility of the cars making their usual holiday runs in Center City, SEPTA officials got an idea.
Why not bring the fun to West Philly?
"It's an opportunity to take kids and grandkids and take a journey back in time," said Kim Heinle, director of marketing and sales for SEPTA.
Since University City has over 80 blocks of unused trolley tracks, bringing two of the streetcars to Penn's neck of the woods was a natural solution.
However, these cars were not a holiday gift. Penn, along with other local sponsors, paid to have the trolleys make their runs in West Philadelphia.
While the holiday trolleys are only temporary -- they stop running on Dec. 24 -- local activists and retailers want to turn them into something more.
The University City District Historical Society, an organization that advocates recognition of the region's historic attributes, has been working on a plan for several years to increase trolley use in University City. Bringing the holiday cars to the area was an ideal way for them to market their proposal -- a proposal which needs the federal government's support before it can be enacted.
Since many community members feel that current transportation options in the area are inadequate, the UCD Historical Society proposes to utilize the area's neglected tracks to create an extensive north-south/east-west line running throughout UCD.
This goal would require that six to eight more blocks of tracks be built and four more historic trolleys restored, a process which would take about two years.
Although most students were unaware of the holiday trolleys and the plan for a more permanent system, some praised the idea all the same.
"It just seems a lot more convenient than waiting for the bus," College freshman Jenny Klatt said. "You know where the trolley's going to stop."
But others were less convinced.
"I would probably not use it, I don't really use any public transportation," Wharton freshman Linda Leibfarth said.
Adding more trolleys to the area would help to eliminate the negative stereotypes often associated with public transportation and would create direct routes that would be more convenient than the current bus loops.
As of now, University City employs complex bus routes, limited trolleys and the LUCY loop, which travels back and forth from the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania to the Presbyterian Hospital.
In contrast, the UCD Historical Society's proposed route would encompass the entire district, serving to transport students at Penn, Drexel and the University of the Sciences in Philadelphia, as well as those who work in University City. The route would also connect directly to Center City via the 36th Street Tunnel.
Although the holiday trolleys now running in the area are not equivalent in size and scope to the UCD Historical Society's plan, officials nevertheless say the ad hoc cars are a way to gauge the community's interest in a more long term concept.
It's a way to "demonstrate the feasibility of this thing [so that] people can sort of get an idea of what it would be like if you had [the trolleys and route] on a regular basis," said Mike Hardy, vice president of the UCD Historical Society.
But Scott Maits, an activist and tour guide for the holiday trolleys, is not so certain that the two-trolley route is a fair way to gauge the feasibility of the larger plan.
"This is kind of a test, but it's not really a full test in any fashion at all," he said.
Maits claimed that additional advantages of the proposed route would include a dramatic decrease in the ever-present parking shortage, as well as a preservation of city life. He said that the current shuttle buses used at Penn take away from the urban nature of the University, a quality he claims many students crave.
Since the plan needs the support of the federal government before it can become a reality, members of the UCD Historical Society have been lobbying in Washington to draw attention to their mission.
And having the University's support is crucial for these trolley crusaders.
"If it weren't for Penn, we wouldn't be able to talk to SEPTA, to the federal government... they would just kind of laugh at us," Maits said.
