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Next Stop For Trolley: Weekend Hot Spot

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By RICH SHOPES, The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 22, 2007

TAMPA - Weekend trolley service is coming to downtown Tampa next month, part of an effort to get partiers to their cars and thin out traffic at Channelside.

The change, which takes effect Nov. 23, signals a shift in strategy for the yellow, rubber-wheeled vehicles that first showed up on downtown streets six years ago. Overall, their presence will diminish as the trolleys are used less as circulators and more as shuttles between downtown and remote parking lots.

Starting Nov. 19, Route 96 will operate on a reduced schedule - three hours in the morning and afternoon rather than all day - and will no longer run behind the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center, instead stopping at a parking lot under Interstate 275.

The agency also will drop Route 98, the Hyde Park-to-downtown trolley, on Nov. 17, citing low ridership and budget constraints.

Together, the changes will save Hillsborough Area Regional Transit $680,000 a year, an agency spokeswoman said.

The new weekend trolley service, dubbed Route 97, will operate from 6 p.m. to 2 a.m. Fridays and Saturdays, and during special events, between the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center and Channelside Bay Plaza, with stops near the Fort Brooke and Whiting Street garages included. The city will pick up the $204,000 annual tab.

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