Langley Township has agreed to consider helping out the Aldergrove residents who are trying to get a trolley project off the ground.

Dave Miller asked council for $2,500, half of the $5,000 the Aldergrove Trolley Committee will need to craft a business plan and get its non-profit firm up and running.

A large group of Aldergrove residents in the crowd were there to show support for the Trolley Committee, which spun out of the Million Dollar Neighbourhood reality show.

Miller said the group has the support of the mayor of Langford, on Vancouver Island, which already runs a trolley system for part of the year.

“We have been in contact with TransLink and understand we will require their approval to create this projected service,” Miller said. “Dialogue to date has been excellent.”

Aldergrove’s system would be modeled on Langford’s, Miller said. It will run on routes that are not served by TransLink buses, it will operate by donation only, and it will have support both financial and in-kind from members of the community.

There are to be two major routes, hopefully starting this summer, Miller said.

One will start at Extra Foods, head up 32nd Avenue and then north on 264th Street to the Gloucester Industrial Park. It will come back down 264th and head back to Extra Foods via 52nd Avenue and 272nd Street.

That route is to run from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. and again from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m., getting workers to Gloucester. Businesses and residents have long complained about the complete lack of bus service to the huge industrial park.

A second route would again start at Extra Foods, hea down 272nd Street to the Pioneer Park mobile home complex on the border, take Zero Avenue west to 248th Street, and head up past the Otter Co-op, back down Fraser Highway to the shopping centre at 264th Street and back to Extra Foods. It would make five trips from 9:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.

Another two trips a day will take visitors to the Greater Vancouver Zoo.

The trolley itself will resemble one of the tourist trolleys that take visitors around Vancouver or Stanley Park, said Miller. It will have wooden seats, but will essentially be a small bus, and won’t run on tracks or use electrical wires.

They hope to buy one for $30,000 to $40,000.

The group already has $15,000 in a bank account, an a pledge from an anonymous donor to bring the total up to $50,000 if the money is used for a trolley system.

Township councillors asked a few questions, but were open to the idea. They voted unanimously to have their staff bring back a report, and to look into whether the group might qualify for some of the grants that are handed out annually.