It’s looking trolley good!
This sure puts those old Brooklyn trolley cars to shame.
The Post got a first look Sunday at what could become the new mode of transportation between Brooklyn and Queens via this Citadis 405 prototype, which was built by the French company Alstom and shipped in from Nice.
The Friends of the Brooklyn Queens Connector — a developer-funded group partnered with the de Blasio administration — said the tram will give New York- ers new transit options independent of the cash-strapped MTA.
A few features on the prototype, currently housed at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, should look familiar to MTA straphangers.
For one thing, the 46-foot-long Citadis has an articulated joint in the middle (pictured), similar to the city’s long Select buses.
And the cars, which include 23 seats, also feature leaning cushions, not unlike the folding seats in the MTA’s new “standing cars.”
But people with mobility issues won’t have to struggle with climbing up or down flights of subway stairs before boarding — the tram’s doors will be just 12.8 inches off street level, according to Liu.
“Whether you’re in a wheelchair, in a walker, dealing with strollers . . . you can be accommodated,” she said.
The city is still determining whether the trams will run on overhead power lines, batteries or a combination of both, but any design will include horns and collision-prevention features to protect 21st-century trolley dodgers, backers say.
The plan’s boosters brought the mock-up trolley here to get riders excited about the line’s potential, according to BQX Executive Director Ya-Ting Liu.
“We are living in an age where, when you think about the existing subway system, the needs are growing and the number of government resources to fund those things is diminishing,” she said.
The streetcar project aims to spur development along its 16mile, Sunset Park-to-Astoria route, and de Blasio is banking on taxes raised by new construction to pay for its $2.5 billion price tag.