The Case of Cary’s Runaway Trolley

After a series of strong investigative reports by The News & Observer, it was revealed that Cary’s (now former) town manager, Sean Stegall, had been spending public funds well beyond what many would consider appropriate and not discussing important decisions with the full council. You can read more about what happened here, and the town’s official response here.

Soon after these findings came to light, the council entered a closed session after a normal town council meeting. Following that meeting, the town announced that Stegall had been placed on paid administrative leave, offering no further immediate explanation citing legal reasons. Shortly after, he resigned.

This, of course, painted an unflattering picture of town leadership and transparency. And as is often the case, once one issue comes to light, increased scrutiny naturally follows.

That brings us to the downtown trolleys.

In late 2022, Cary’s town council approved the purchase of two trolleys for downtown. They arrived in July 2023, and there was significant excitement surrounding their rollout. The plan was to test them, finalize routes, and then open them to the public.

Before continuing, I should note that I typically write The Cary Report in a neutral, news-style voice without personal commentary. For this story, however, I’m intentionally sharing my own perspective and experiences related to transparency in Cary.

I reported about the trolleys as it was happening. I announced when they arrived to the town and it was one of The Cary’s Report’s most viewed articles for a very long time. People were very excited about the trolleys

To understand what happened next, it helps to explain how I monitor links on my website. The Cary Report runs on WordPress, and I use a plugin that alerts me when links break or no longer lead to active webpages. This helps ensure articles remain accurate, since pages can be moved or deleted over time.

On August 20, 2023, I received an alert that every link in my trolley article had gone dead.

At the time, the Town of Cary was using a dynamic webpage to communicate trolley updates. That page included FAQs, timelines, and ongoing updates as new information became available. I had linked to it multiple times in my article.

My first assumption was that the page had simply been moved. That happens. But when I searched the town’s website for “trolley,” nothing relevant appeared.

In fact, you can do the same thing today and the only mention you’ll find about the trolleys is this new page from October 2025 that details what happened to the trolleys after a town council candidate made a video claiming that the town misled the public about the trolleys (more on that later). The original page, that was continuously updated with new information, was just completely removed without any explanation and no official town source explained anything further until almost two years later when it started to be brought up again, other than the mayor’s blog.

After noticing the broken links, I did some digging and found that the mayor had written that the trolleys were sent back because they did not meet ADA standards. This caught me off guard, as no other official source had shared this information.

I contacted 311 for clarification. They told me the trolleys would not be launching that fall, that replacement options were being explored, and that the town would provide updates as more information became available. Notably, they did not confirm that the trolleys had been sent back. At the time, the mayor’s blog was the only source stating that they were.

Eventually, GoCary announced a new route called Downtown Loop, which effectively serves the same purpose of the trolleys. It has been running since June 2024.

So what actually happened to the trolleys?

Rumors began circulating that they were being quietly stored somewhere, a theory that sounded more like a conspiracy than reality. If they were being hidden, why would the mayor publicly state they were sent back?

At the time, I assumed the confusion existed simply because the town wasn’t communicating clearly. And honestly, even if the town had scrapped the project entirely and lost $500,000, that would have been disappointing but not catastrophic. Costly mistake? Yes. Avoidable? Very likely. Scandal-worthy? Not necessarily.

But it turns out the trolleys were being stored, parked and unused for almost two years, before eventually being sold to a city in California at a loss of roughly $260,000.

The controversy surrounding the trolleys is not that the town lost about $260k in the sale. It isn’t that they, seemingly, failed to inspect the trolleys before purchasing them to ensure they met all of the town’s standards. These things aren’t good, but also aren’t the end of the world. These kind of mistakes are made all of the time in both the private and public sectors

The issue is the lack of transparency.

The town already had a dynamic webpage dedicated to the trolley project. Instead of updating it to explain the situation, even briefly, the page was removed entirely, and no public explanation was offered until nearly two years later, when the topic resurfaced during an election cycle.

The town’s official explanation is that the page was taken down while staff worked to determine whether the trolleys could be fixed, returned, or sold. But even then, the public could have been informed that an issue existed and that options were being evaluated. Instead, there was silence until after the sale had already happened.

This isn’t an isolated issue.

While reporting on the success of Downtown Cary Park, I noted that The Gathering House (a flexible indoor space that had structural issues upon inspection) remained closed for more than two years after the park opened. The park’s website also stated it was closed. After publishing, an anonymous parks employee reached out to say it had actually reopened. I contacted town staff, confirmed this, and the website was updated shortly after.

I found it a little strange that they didn’t announce the opening, because why wouldn’t you? It was closed since the park opened, so it is kind of a big deal that it finally opened.

Later, I noticed the same pattern when the botanical garden reopened after months of maintenance. Again, no announcement.

Cary is, without question, one of the best towns to live in anywhere in the country. It’s clean, safe, thoughtfully designed, and, despite these issues, generally well run. But there is a clear issue with transparency, and residents notice.

I hope the town takes this as an opportunity to do better. Transparency doesn’t just mean explaining problems after the fact; it means communicating openly, consistently, and honestly, both when things go wrong and when they go right.