SALEM — It’s fair to say that during the pandemic, the Essex Street Pedestrian Mall in downtown Salem doesn’t have the same buzz it usually has. But while things may not be exactly the same, one thing still rolling along down those stone pathways is the Salem Trolley.
The rolling tours through the city’s historical sites have been able to keep the show on the road thanks to more than a few adjustments.
“The biggest changes are the reduced capacity,” said Tammy Harrington, general manager of the Salem Trolley. “We do our daytime tours and in October we’ll start nighttime tours. The one trolley does seven loops a day. We’re at a capacity of 15 to 18 people depending on which trolley is out there.”
This year the tours also include sanitizing stations along with daily sanitization of the trolley itself. Guests and staff are also required to wear masks, while groups of passengers are separated by empty seats or rows.
With all these changes it’s been an uphill battle since a pushed-back opening day in July, but progress has built slowly despite a widespread lack of tourists in the city this year.
“The numbers when we first opened on July 6…it was a very slow start,” Harrington said. “I don’t think the tourists were coming as much as they could have before. It is slowly building up, but we’re no where close to where we would be pre-COVID at this time.
“But the last few weekends have been good. We’re hoping that October is good and the build up continues. It’s one of our biggest months.”
October has been a big month for the Salem Trolley since it opened in 1982, providing its tours along with all-day shuttle service throughout the city.
Tours start on Essex Street across from the Peabody Essex Museum, with the first trolley departing at 10 a.m. and the last of the day at 4 p.m. From there a tour guide talks guests through an eight-mile ride past several historical sights, including witch-themed sights, the House of the Seven Gables, the local waterfront and Chestnut Street.
Filling those tours is one thing, but finding staff to make them possible was another problem this summer that had to be solved.
“It’s hard to find people to work, and then once you get them working to get them licensed and everything to do everything,” Harrington said. “Normally we have all the same tour guides coming back. We got about half of them back (this year).
“A lot of our tour guides are either college-student age or retired age,” she said. “The older employees, not all of them came back for the season because of different health reasons. We totally respect that from all of them. Their health is more important than the job.”
After a few months of adjusting to the new normal, Harrington and her staff is building towards what they hope is as good an October as there can be right now.
“We’re putting out more trolleys and hoping for more tourists to come,” Harrington said. “We build them up slowly, and we’ll get it done. Hopefully now if we make it through October, which I know we will, next year will be a lot better than this year.”
