History of trolleys in York, Maine

Trolleys in York date back to 1897, when the Portsmouth, Kittery & York Street Railway began operations. These trolleys ran on rails and were powered by overhead electric wires. The route ran from Badger's Island in Kittery through York Harbor along Long Sands Beach into Short Sands Beach with a stop next to the Goldenrod, as seen in the photo above. This trolley service became obsolete when the Memorial Bridge opened in 1923 and folks could easily travel to York in their own autos.

In 1984 the New England Trolley Company began offering narrated trolley "bus" tours of York during the summer. The tours continued until the year 2000, the final season for New England Trolley.

In 2003 the York Trolley Company began operations. Initially the company started with one trolley, “Bessie” performing narrated tours, much like New England Trolley. In 2004 a second trolley, “Mattie” was added to the fleet to introduce the Beach Trolley service. In 2011 “Ginny”, our custom-built Wedding Trolley, was added to the fleet. In 2020 Bessie and Mattie retired and we added a new 34 passenger trolley, also named Mattie.