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ST. LOUIS — A regional board on Wednesday reversed course, approving a $1.26 million federal grant to help the recently restarted Loop Trolley continue operating.

The board of the East-West Gateway Council of Governments voted 15-5 to OK the grant request.

The panel, which oversees federal transportation spending in the metro area, last October had rejected the same grant request on a voice vote.

Among supporters was ӣ����Ƶ Mayor Tishaura O. Jones, who repeated her warning that failing to operate the trolley would spur the federal government to demand repayment of tens of millions of dollars in previous aid.

She also said the area’s chances of getting future federal aid for projects such as expanding MetroLink would be harmed if the trolley stopped operating again.

“We should not, in my opinion, piss off the federal government by not taking the action to make sure that this project succeeds just because we don’t like it,” Jones said. “Nobody hates this more than I do but I have to fix it.”

Leading the opposition was Kurt Prenzler, the Madison County board chairman.

He said people in the Delmar Loop area who promoted the trolley project should come up with the money to supplement a sales tax along the route that is supposed to subsidize operations.

“If they’re such good businessmen they should be able to figure out a way to get from A to B,” Prenzler said.

ӣ����Ƶ County Executive Sam Page, St. Clair County Board Chairman Mark Kern and Joe Vollmer, acting president of the ӣ����Ƶ Board of Aldermen, joined Jones in support of the grant.

Page said “this is the wrong time to be challenging the federal government when they’re giving away billions of dollars and we’re asking for some of it.”

St. Charles County Executive Steve Ehlmann and ӣ����Ƶ County Council Chairwoman Rita Heard Days opposed the grant. “What is the end game?” Days asked. “When do we stop the bleeding on this particular project?”

The vote was on a motion by Prenzler to remove the new trolley grant from a list of federally funded allocations across the metro area for the next four years.

The trolley runs a 2.2-mile route between the western end of the Delmar Loop commercial area in University City and the Missouri History Museum in Forest Park.

The line stopped operating on a regular basis at the end of 2019 amid low ridership, mechanical mishaps and financial problems.

It started up again on Aug. 4, with the Bi-State Development Agency, the operator of Metro Transit, taking it over on contract with the trolley sales tax district.

Taulby Roach, Bi-State’s CEO, and Jones said federal aid for the proposed north-south extension of MetroLink would be much harder to compete for if the region has to pay back some of the $37 million in federal money put into the Loop Trolley.

Roach said $400 million to $500 million will be needed from Washington for the MetroLink plan.

Roach said before the meeting that, had the $1.26 million grant not been approved, there would still be enough sales tax money to continue operating the trolley four days a week through the end of October as previously announced.

But he said the grant was essential for the trolley’s long-term financial viability. Plans call for the trolley to resume running next spring, again on Thursdays through Sundays.

Roach on Wednesday said he was “pleasantly surprised” at ridership during the trolley’s latest runs, which have been free of charge. Riders had to buy tickets during most of the trolley’s previous operation.

He said 2,715 people have taken the trolley since Aug. 4, with the biggest numbers, about 1,100, the weekend of Aug. 18-21.

During most of the trolley’s original run of about a year, also for four days a week, the number of tickets sold per month ranged from 1,000 to 2,190.

That’s far below the projection of 394,000 riders a year estimated by trolley officials in 2015 for a seven-day-a-week schedule.

Updated at 5 p.m.