
                         THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
                 Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, June 2, 1994                    TAG: 9406020460 
SECTION: LOCAL                     PAGE: D1    EDITION: FINAL  
SOURCE: BY STEVE STONE, STAFF WRITER 
DATELINE: 940602                                 LENGTH: NORFOLK

TRT WON'T RUN SHUTTLES TO HARBORFEST

{LEAD} Time was, you had to be nuts if you tried to drive to Harborfest. And you could easily go nuts trying to find a parking space. Everyone was urged to use an elaborate shuttle bus system. No more.

With multi-level parking garages now sprinkled throughout downtown Norfolk, Harborfest will be without shuttle bus service this weekend.

{REST} Tidewater Regional Transit, which operated shuttle services to Harborfest and Portsmouth's Seawall Festival, reduced the service to just Saturday last year. This year, TRT eliminated it.

In 1992, ridership on shuttle buses was only 1,500 people on Friday and 4,300 Sunday. Saturday's shuttle service carried 20,000 riders.

Last year's numbers for Saturday were low, Harborfest officials said, although the number was not available. The decline was attributed in part to the growing availability of downtown parking. Also rain fell during two of the festival's three days last year, which probably reduced attendance.

Parking is expected to get even easier in the years ahead. With the construction of the MacArthur Center shopping complex downtown, another 4,400 spaces will be added in two new parking garages.

For thousands of festival-goers, the loss of bus service may only be a nuisance - a question of driving a little longer and seeking a parking space.

Harborfest officials have no idea how many people who plan to attend the event lacked another means of getting to it. Of course, those folks will have the option of taking regular TRT buses into downtown Norfolk and Portsmouth, although they may take more time to use than the shuttle service.

The spectator fleet launch service that carried boaters from anchorages to shore also has been eliminated this year.

{KEYWORDS} HARBORFEST

by CNB