Transit officials began the first leg of a community outreach process on the future of the Mattapan High-Speed Trolley on Tuesday by briefing a modest gathering in the Mattapan branch of the Boston Public Library.

With $7.9 million allocated to keeping the 10-car fleet of WWII-era Presidents’ Conference Committee (PCC) trolleys maintained and functioning, the engineering firm CH2M Hill, Ltd. is now engaged in a $1.1 million, year-long “due diligence” study of the 2.6-mile line’s current conditions.

The baseline investment will preserve the cars “into the 2020s,” said Brian Kane, the MBTA’s director of operations analysis. “There are many things we are considering for the future of the line, but we are also committed to keeping the PCC car fleet on the Mattapan high speed line into the next decade,” he said. “As old as they are, there are no guarantees with these cars, but there’s also no expiration date.”

The study will weigh the relative advantages of maintaining or enhancing the current stock – of which seven cars are regularly in service; investing in replica trolleys or other light rail alternatives; creating a Bus Rapid Transit route with additional connections; and alternative vehicle technologies like all-electric trams.

Attendees emphasized that the trolley is an historic part of the neighborhood.

“I see the Mattapan line as a great asset to the city of Boston and the MBTA,” said resident Carole Mooney. “It goes along a historic route, and it goes through historic cemetery, there is a walking trail along the way, and you can get on it from most of the stops.”

She recommended that the T focus on advertising the line, perhaps adding bicycling connections along the Neponset River Greenway Extension, which is expected to be completed this year. “This is a real gem,” Mooney said. “Our chance is to keep this as the people many years ago decided to keep Faneuil Hall, as they kept the old State House, as they kept our historic churches. It’s a very important thing for us to keep this, not only for ourselves but for the city and for the state.”

State Rep. Dan Cullinane said that the value of the trolley goes beyond nostalgia or historic preservation. Those who depend on the line are disproportionately transit burdened, he said. Mattapan contains the lowest percentage of commuters in the city by neighborhood whose commute is less than 30 minutes, and the highest percentage of commuters whose commute is more than 60 minutes – a 10 percentage point jump over the next closest neighborhood.

“As I have said before regarding public transportation: Access to opportunity is everything,” Cullinane wrote in a statement. “If you can’t get there, or if it takes too long to get there, then that access is not real.”

State Sen. Linda Dorcena Forry, state Rep. Russell Holmes, state Rep. Bill Driscoll of Milton, and representatives from city councillors Andrea Campbell’s and Annissa Essaibi-George’s offices also attended the meeting.

City Councillor Tim McCarthy, whose district includes the Mattapan end point of the trolley, talked about traveling with fellow councillor Frank Baker to Philadelphia in 2016 to examine the city’s comparable vintage PCC fleet. Workers there, he said, mentioned that “there’s a fine line between a modern trolleys and the quaintness and uniqueness of what we have here.”

McCarthy also reminded T officials to bear in mind potential impacts on homeownership values and appeal along the line. “We’re looking at major development around the Mattapan Square area,” he said. “And the thought of having homeownership in the Mattapan parking lot there at some point... there’s a lot different between watching a trolley rolling by and a bus revving as it drives by your house.”

Attendees pointed out areas in need of improvement, including limited disability accessibility, jammed cars during peak hours, and very infrequent service during off-peak hours. And transit advocate Allentza Michel asked if any thought was being given to retrofitting the cars with ADA-accessible interiors while maintaining the historic shell.

“Because the look of the car is really what gives it its value as a tourist attraction,” she said, “in San Francisco and Brownsville, Pennsylvania, those are the things they really use to market the cars, and so think about this as a potential tourist attraction, as a potential revenue-generating opportunity for the local neighborhoods.”

Kane said that the technical analysis for the study needs to come before any detailed plans are laid out for the future of the cars, including possible retrofits. “This due diligence study really is the first step to anything that comes next,” he said.

Additional meetings are planned for Milton High School on April 13 from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., and the Lower Mills Public Library on April 24, also from 6:30 to 8:30. The T is also soliciting feedback through the Mattapan Trolley section of its website, MBTA.com.