THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, August 14, 1996 TAG: 9608140313
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DAVE ADDIS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: 50 lines
City employees are tinkering with a plan that would relieve, for some, the great headache of all concert-goers: getting there, parking the car and reversing the process among a horde of people trying to do precisely the same thing.
A number of Virginia Beach restaurants and taverns already offer their patrons trolley service to certain amphitheater events by renting the vehicles from Tidewater Regional Transit.
Within weeks, the city hopes to have trolley buses rolling from Oceanfront hotels and restaurants across town to the new concert venue off Princess Anne and Dam Neck roads. Prices and schedules have not been determined.
City planners, tourism and Amphitheater officials, and representatives of Tidewater Regional Transit have a committee working on the details. The system could be running in two to three weeks, they said.
``We're trying to work towards a service for guests so they can get on a trolley and not worry about driving (to the amphitheater) or finding it,'' said Mark Wawner, project development manager for the Department of Economic Development. ``They've put together a task force to work on it, on a trial basis, a show-by-show basis - especially the big shows.''
The program is ``just getting off the ground,'' said Dale Castellow, a city transportation planner. ``We're kicking around a bunch of ideas.''
Commercial tie-ins with tourist-area hotels and restaurants are part of the plan, he said, but local residents will be welcomed aboard, too.
``Absolutely,'' Castellow said. ``We're looking at perhaps adding stops at some of the city parking lots. . . . Citizens who may live in the proximity would be able to just scoot down there and ride along.
``The idea, obviously, is to get as many as we can on the trolleys.''
Castellow said the amphitheater requested the service for nine shows remaining on the schedule this summer and fall. The dates are still sketchy.
``We're shooting for a couple of weeks,'' he said. ``We have some budget issues we need to resolve.''
The trolley idea has proved popular with some local taverns, Wawner said.
Kokoamos Island Bar and Grille, for example, will have three trolleys running to the sold-out Jimmy Buffett concert this evening from the tavern at Marina Shores off Great Neck Road near Shore Drive. The ride is part of a concert-night party package which, according to a tavern employee, is also sold out. ILLUSTRATION: Kokoamos Island Bar and Grille will have trolleys
running to tonight's Jimmy Buffet concert.
More on the Buffet show/E1 by CNB