That’s because of a lengthy delay in the renovation of the trolley line’s third car. The car, built in the 1920s and rehabbed in Iowa, was finally delivered to trolley headquarters on Delmar Boulevard in January.

Since then, it’s been undergoing detailed testing. Barbeau said Tuesday that he hopes the third car can be put into service later this summer but that an exact date has yet to be determined.

Meanwhile, Barbeau said “we’ve been encouraged by the increase in ridership as the months go on.”

He added that “a lot of the work we’ll do on secondary revenue” — such as advertising and fundraising — will pick up when the trolley is finally running on a daily basis.

A longtime Loop Trolley critic, University City resident Tom Sullivan, said Tuesday that the statistics to date show that the trolley “still has a long ways to go to prove it’s worthwhile.”

The $51 million line links the western end of the Delmar Loop commercial area in University City and the Missouri History Museum in Forest Park.