
DATE: Saturday, November 22, 1997           TAG: 9711220354

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B3   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY BILL REED, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:   49 lines

TRT TO START HOLIDAY TROLLEY AND BUS TOURS

Tidewater Regional Transit will crank up its annual holiday trolley tours in Norfolk, Portsmouth and Virginia Beach in mid-December.

This will give riders, who plunk down fares ranging from $2 to $20, a glimpse of seasonal glitter on the waterfront and inland.

For a few dollars more, patrons can eat at selected restaurants before boarding for the evening tours in what TRT officials have dubbed their ``lights and bites'' program.

Trolley tours of Norfolk Botanical Garden and the Holiday Lights show on the Virginia Beach Boardwalk include the dinner packages.

The Olde Towne Portsmouth tour offers would-be shoppers stopovers at Coleman Nursery and The Barn Christmas Shoppe.

Reservations for all tours are required.

They enable TRT officials to gauge the number of trolleys and mini-buses needed on a given night, said Cynthia Yusuf, spokeswoman for TRT. More vehicles will be placed on the road each night if the demand is there, she said.

TRT trolleys will be placed into service at all locations except the Oceanfront, where mini-buses will be used.

Mini-buses are smaller and lighter and less likely to damage the Boardwalk than the heavier trolleys, Yusuf explained.

Holiday tours have been an annual undertaking by TRT since 1983, when the service started a tour of the Norfolk Naval Base and patrons could get a closeup look at docked warships rigged with elaborate light displays.

The base tour was discontinued several years ago when the gates of the base were opened to the public.

``Now most people can drive their cars on the base to see the show,'' Yusuf said. ILLUSTRATION: Photo

L. TODD SPENCER

Jumping dolphins and other holiday displays will transform the

Virginia Beach Boardwalk into a fantasy of lights during Holiday

Lights at the Beach. TRT trolley tours of Norfolk Botanical Garden

and the Holiday Lights show on the Beach Boardwalk include the

dinner packages.

Graphic

Holiday tours

Times, dates, places and prices for TRT holiday tours are as

follows: