DATE: Wednesday, April 30, 1997             TAG: 9704300506

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B7   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: Bill Reed 

DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH                    LENGTH:   34 lines

EXPANDED TROLLEY SERVICE DUE AT OCEANFRONT BY END OF MAY

A beefed-up Oceanfront trolley service should swing into action the last week in May, once the City Council provides the $300,000 needed to pay for it.

Indications are that funding will not be a problem, but Council won't vote on the question until May 13. The money will come from a special hotel and restaurant tax pool known as the Tourism Growth Investment Fund, or TGIF.

``It (TGIF) has the money to do it and do it reasonably well,'' City Manager James K. Spore assured council members Tuesday. The council is in the throes of wrestling with assembling a $957 million municipal budget without raising taxes, and several members were concerned about a financing source for the enhanced trolley service.

Once the city budget is adopted in mid-May, funding for the first summer of stepped-up trolley operations will be in place.

This will mean:

More trolleys will ply the Oceanfront more frequently.

Trolleys will run an extended route from 42nd Street to the Virginia Marine Science Museum along Atlantic and Pacific avenues.

The city will dedicate two Atlantic Avenue lanes exclusively to trolleys on busy summer nights.

Riders will pay with tokens provided by Oceanfront businesses.

Radio-equipped supervisors will patrol the streets to ensure trolley reliability.

There will be more signs, drivers will be dressed in colorful uniforms and trolleys will be repainted in decorative colors to make the service more visible to tourists. KEYWORDS: TROLLEY VIRGINIA BEACH OCEANFRONT

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