Once nearly grounded, Philly Phlash rides on

The purple buses are in for a bright Black Friday.

After nearly collapsing for lack of funds two years ago, the tourist-friendly Philly Phlash bus will mark its 20th anniversary with extended hours to serve Center City's growing lineup of holiday attractions.

The subsidized shuttle, founded in 1994 by then-Mayor Ed Rendell, is back in high gear after a change in operators and intensive lobbying in Harrisburg yielded guaranteed funding for the service, which connects museums and other attractions in a continuous loop.

On Black Friday, the line of 35-seat buses will offer extended hours and nighttime service for the first time, lasting through New Year's with seven-day-a-week service.

With a new fleet and ample funding, Phlash will run from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. throughout the holidays, including daytime stops at newly renovated Dilworth Park; drop-offs and pickups at the light displays of Macy's and Comcast Center; evening stops to light shows at Franklin Square; and throughout the Rittenhouse shopping district.

This turnaround for a mostly seasonal service is striking, given that it was nearly grounded in 2012 after funding dried up.

"It feels great," said James Cuorato, president and chief executive of Independence Visitor Center Corp., whose nonprofit took over Phlash from the Center City District in 2012 and successfully lobbied for steady state funding. "I'm just glad that everything fell into place."

"Great credit to Jim for keeping this going," said Paul Levy, chief executive of the district, who handed off Phlash to focus on the redevelopment of Dilworth Plaza, which recently opened a skating rink as part of its recent overhaul alongside City Hall.

Cuorato and a few board members "really were able to make the case at the state level that this was ... essential," he said.

Phlash started in 1994 as part of Rendell's downtown revitalization strategy hooked largely to tourism. By 2001, after becoming idle in the wake of Rendell's departure from City Hall, the service was taken over by Center City District, which outsourced operations to Philadelphia Trolley Works.

In 2012, Cuorato realized the service was far short of the $700,000 needed to cover its annual operating expenses. So the former city commerce director accepted stewardship of the bus line and "scrambled" to keep it going on a bare-bones schedule while devising a funding strategy.

In 2013, Cuorato and the vice chairman of his board, Thomas Caramanico, lobbied lawmakers to insert dedicated funding for Phlash in a proposed $2.4 billion state transportation bill.

Caramanico, a 42-year veteran of the Philadelphia-based transportation engineering firm McCormick Taylor Inc., said he used his many relationships with lawmakers to build support for including Phlash for an annual appropriation of $900,000.

"I thought to myself, 'A $2.4 billion transportation bill, and here Jim's trying to find $900,000 a year,' " Caramanico said Monday. "The two seem to go together."

The bill passed, with Phlash included, meaning annual allocations are assured as long as the law is not repealed.

With that money, plus about $250,000 from SEPTA, Cuorato awarded a new operating contract to Krapf's of West Chester, which replaced a prior fleet of trolleys with climate-controlled "midibuses." Seven hit the road this year.

The Phlash costs $2 per ride or $5 per day and runs every 15 minutes (instead of 20 minutes) in a loop between Penn's Landing and the Philadelphia Museum of Art, with a few then leaping from the Art Museum to Fairmount Park attractions the Please Touch Museum and the Philadelphia Zoo.

For the holidays, daytime buses will run between Penn's Landing and the Art Museum until 6 p.m., after which a 6 to 10 p.m. route will activate between Logan Square and Penn's Landing, including additional stops at Franklin Square and through Rittenhouse Row.