OC Today-Dispatch NOVEMBER 8, 2024
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ELECTIONS: Meehan wins two more years, council gets two new faces, incumbents take school board: RECAPS, VIEWPOINTS INSIDE TRAM: Boardwalk service not likely in ‘25, future unknown: PAGE 3
WINNERS: Mayor Rick Meehan celebrates his reelection and new members of the Ocean City Council Larry Yates (left) and Jake Mitrecic are happy about joining reelected incumbents John Gehrig and Tony Deluca at the dais for the next four years.
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OC Today-Dispatch
NOVEMBER 8, 2024
NOVEMBER 8, 2024
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OC Today-Dispatch
Tram operation likely out for next summer amid issues By Bethany Hooper Associate Editor (Nov. 8, 2024) As an investigation into a late-summer tram fatality continues, City Manager Terry McGean said it is unlikely the Boardwalk tram operation will return in 2025. In the weeks following an Aug. 20 tram accident in which a toddler was killed on the Boardwalk, transportation officials announced that the Boardwalk tram service would not return for the remainder of the year. However, as an investigation continues, and with the city now facing a potential lawsuit related to the fatality, McGean on Monday said that suspension could continue into 2025. “It is likely they will not be in operation next year,” he said. Tram service was suspended in the weeks following an Aug. 20 incident, in which a tram driving south on the concrete lane of the Boardwalk struck and killed an unidentified toddler who was running west from the beach onto the Boardwalk near Dorchester Street, according to preliminary reports. And since that time, the Ocean City Police Department has continued its investigation into the fatality. However, the future of the Boardwalk tram service was called into question last month, when an annual discussion on tram driver and conductor recruitment
was noticeably absent from an Ocean City Transportation Committee meeting. After that gathering, Transit Manager Rob Shearman said “there are some legal questions that need to be worked out first” before a decision to return the Boardwalk trams next year could be made. He said once the police department’s investigation into the Aug. 20 fatality concludes and those results are provided, tram operations would adjust accordingly. McGean confirmed this week that the city has been placed on notice for a potential lawsuit related to this summer’s tram fatality. He also noted there are “a number of issues coming up” regarding the Boardwalk tram operation. When asked what those issues are, or if the use of Jeeps in operating the Boardwalk trams was one of them, McGean first denied that to be the case, then said, “the Jeeps is one [issue] but not the only issue.” Earlier this year, the Town of Ocean City celebrated the 60th anniversary of its Boardwalk tram operation. Since its inception in June of 1964, the trams have been an integral part of Ocean City’s landscape. The trams have undergone many iterations throughout the decades, with the most recent change taking place in the summer of 2018. That year, the city began deploying Jeeps to tow the tram coaches.
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