In a decision that would have been unthinkable only a few years ago, the St. Helena City Council voted 4-1 Tuesday to allow the Napa Valley Wine Train to make stops in St. Helena.

The stops will be allowed on a trial basis during the monthly Cheers! St. Helena promotional events.

The plan is for the Wine Train to chug into St. Helena at 6 p.m. on the first Friday of each month, coinciding with the popular Cheers! social event downtown. The Wine Train would carry just one passenger car with a capacity of 50 people.

Passengers would disembark at a small platform in the railroad right-of-way just north of the Charter Oak Bank on Railroad Avenue, then presumably amble up Main Street. The train would wait near Fulton Lane until about

8:45 p.m., when it would pick up the passengers and head back to Napa.

Not long ago a proposal like that would have caused a public uproar. But by the time the council discussed the Wine Train, at about 9:30 Tuesday night, only five members of the public were left in the room. None spoke against the Wine Train.

“I think that people have voted with their butts tonight,” said Councilman Eric Sklar. “They stayed on their sofas at home, which would not have happened three, five, six years ago.”

The stops will take place on the first Fridays of July, August, September and October.

Councilmembers stressed that the stops are just a trial run that will allow everyone to gauge the train’s impact on the city, positive or negative.

“There’s so much apprehension about the Wine Train and what it might mean,” said Councilwoman Bonnie Schoch. “This, to me, is just a very small little trial. It has a set beginning and a set end … and then a review.”

At the end of the trial period, city officials will consider whether the Wine Train should stop in St. Helena more often.

More frequent stops would probably require a zoning change and use permit, with public hearings at the planning commission and city council, according to Planning Director Carol Poole.

The decades-long cold war between the city and the Wine Train started to thaw last year, when Greg McManus took over as Wine Train CEO after the death of founder Vince DeDomenico. Earlier this year local merchants asked the city to open negotiations with the Wine Train, in hopes of getting more customers into St. Helena businesses.

Sklar, who along with Schoch participated in talks with the Wine Train, said the new platform, which will require a building permit, would be “just four or five inches tall. Liability would be borne by the Wine Train, which would also be responsible for maintaining the platform.”

Mayor Del Britton, a staunch opponent of the Wine Train in St. Helena, cast the only dissenting vote. He pointed out that there were no objective criteria on which to evaluate the trial run and that the city had not required a permit for the trials.

“What’s the difference between whether they do it once or 50 times? It should be the same process,” he said.