Lily Tomlin, Carol Channing to attend Palm Springs trolley launch

Lily Tomlin, Carol Channing, Suzanne Somers and other celebrities will appear Friday at the splashy debut of free trolley service -- you heard right -- in Palm Springs.

“Yes, yes, they’ll be here to christen the four trolleys,” Hillary Angel, public relations manager of the Palm Springs Bureau of Tourism, said of the starry lineup.

Oh and film producer Jerry Weintraub, and actor Gavin MacLeod, and Harold Matzner, chairman of the Palm Springs International Film Festival too. You can come as the city rolls out the pink carpet and cuts the ribbon for a transportation service that’s getting the Oscar treatment.

The star of the evening: Palm Springs Buzz, a free trolley that will connect the north and south sides of the city.

The route runs in a loop roughly from the Riviera Resort at 1600 N. Indian Canyon Drive to Smoketree Lane. It will operate every 15 minutes on Thursdays through Sundays from 11 a.m. until 1 a.m. (Download a Trolley Route Map here.)

You can hop on and off at 30 stops that travel pretty much along main roadways Palm Canyon Drive (north and south) and Indian Canyon Drive (north and south) -- good for visitors who want to go car-free or just party hardy without driving.

But back to the event.

It begins at 5 p.m. today at the corner of Tahquitz Canyon Way and Palm Canyon Drive. Get there early -- the first 30 people to take inaugural rides will receive Buzz T-shirts.

Info: Palm Springs Buzz