DAV ID HARDEN/Arizona Daily Wildcat Volunteers Eric Sitiko, mechanical engineering senior, talks with restoration specialists Joe Abney, who examines the inside of a new trolley car, yesterday at the Old Pueblo Trolley Station. The station received the car yesterday from Los Angeles, and will restore the car for later use.

Line will run from just west of campus to Rio Nuevo in the southern portion of downtown

In a move to expand its service, the company that operates the trolley that runs along East University Boulevard acquired a new trolley car yesterday.

The 1911 streetcar, which will be restored and rebuilt, comes as part of a plan to become the main transit system serving the Rio Nuevo revitalizing project downtown.

John S. Jones, project director of Rio Nuevo, said the trolley will function as a park and ride service where visitors will be able to park near the university and take the trolley to the downtown area.

Richard Guthrie, president and chief operations officer of Old Pueblo Trolley, also said the new trolley service will alleviate parking congestion.

The new trolley will serve downtown, as well as the university museums that have been "underutilized" due to the parking situation.

"The trolley can attract passengers, get them out of their cars, with fast service and no parking," Guthrie said.

Old Pueblo Trolley is an all-volunteer, non-profit transit museum on wheels, as the cars are considered antiques.

It was started in 1984 with the intention to eventually serve as a connection between the university and Tucson Convention Center. When a city bond vote was passed for Rio Nuevo in 1999, the trolley became incorporated as part of the master plan.

Rio Nuevo is a revitalization and renovation project spanning downtown. The project includes the reopening of the Fox Theater, a new aquarium and several new museums.

Flandrau Science Center will move off the University of Arizona campus to be part of the project, and the Arizona State Museum will move its major exhibits downtown as well.

One main obstacle preventing the trolley from serving downtown is the Fourth Avenue underpass, which is too low for the trolley to pass under.

Michael Guymon, an aid to city council member Fred Ronstadt involved with the Rio Nuevo project, said a new underpass is planned to be completed by 2004.

"We are designing with the trolley in mind," he said.

Eric Sitiko, a mechanical engineering senior who serves as superintendent of maintenance and restoration with Old Pueblo Trolley, said the trolley currently runs on 1.25 miles of track. The route would be extended to at least 3 miles once the construction is complete.

Guthrie said they are planning for a system that runs seven days a week, 14 hours a day, using historic and replica streetcars.

Guthrie said that the trolley system, which goes west down East University Boulevard and south down North Fourth Avenue, was built by volunteers.

The new sections would be built by the City of Tucson and run by Old Pueblo Trolley. The trolley would then be subsidized by the city with 90 percent paid employees.