Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, March 18, 1990                   TAG: 9003162561
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV10   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY  
SOURCE: SCOT HOFFMAN CORRESPONDENT
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG                                LENGTH: Short

TWO TOWN TROLLEY RUNS MONDAY

Each one-hour circuit, intended as a Blacksburg-Christiansburg shopper service route, will run from downtown to downtown with stops at the Marketplace shopping center and the New River Valley Mall.

The trolley, actually a repainted transit bus, will make 5 1/2 trips Monday. It will stop for an opening ceremony at 12:30 p.m. at the Christiansburg courthouse square.

Christiansburg Mayor Harold Linkous and Blacksburg Mayor Roger Hedgepeth will be at the square to speak.

The service was to begin Thursday but was postponed when transit and town officials realized they had scheduled the opening day during Virginia Tech's spring break. They are returning to school this weekend.

Tech students, who initiated discussion of the route almost two years ago, are expected to constitute about 75 percent of its approximately 35,000 riders annually.

The students will finance about $19,000 of the projected $45,000 annual operating costs through their student center fees. The remaining costs will be split among Christiansburg (23 percent), federal grants (25 percent) and fare revenues (9.8 percent).

The route has been set up for a 14-month trial period, after which university, town and transit officials will decide whether to make it permanent and what changes, if any, should be made.