Downtown shuttle service to add routes

By Jen McCaffery

The federally funded shuttle service in downtown Portsmouth has had light ridership during its first year. But city officials have been working with Hampton Roads Transit to extend the route and improve the service.

The downtown segment of the shuttle service will remain essentially the same, aside from a new stop at the commuter lot at Bart and Court streets.

But The Loop will now also have two routes into the Westbury and Park View neighborhoods.

The new routes will enable riders to get off at the Food Lion grocery store at London Boulevard and Peninsula Avenue. That stop is also close to the city’s Social Services complex, Deputy City Manager Paul Holt said.

Planners also are looking to extend service into the Westbury neighborhood, so the new route also can serve an apartment complex for senior citizens that is under construction.

And one major hassle will be gone: The shuttle will stop outside the Naval Medical Center instead of going onto the campus, meaning riders no longer will have to get off and wait outside the hospital grounds.

The changes will go into effect June 15.

The city will not alter what has worked for the system. The Loop will continue to run in sync with the ferry and still provide service up and down High Street every 15 minutes, Holt said.

The new Park View and Westbury routes will run on 30-minute cycles.

The Loop is a service city leaders had worked to bring to Portsmouth for nearly five years.

They wanted a shuttle to bring visitors from the waterfront farther up High Street and help alleviate downtown congestion.

The buses also have provided service to and from the commuter lot and on to the Naval Medical Center.

A $2.4 million federal grant is paying for the two electric hybrid buses, plus operating costs and salaries for three years.

The fare for adults and youths is 50 cents.

The service averages between 75 and 87 passengers each weekday, HRT spokesman Tom Holden said.

That’s about 20,000 riders since the shuttles began running last April.

“The ridership is light, there’s no question about that,” Holden said.

Some of the factors that have limited the use of The Loop’s services include the lack of high density and significant employment downtown; the availability of downtown parking; and that most of the businesses and major destinations are within walking distance, he said.

But Park View resident Tony Goodwin, who has worked a citizens’ committee for The Loop, said he thinks transportation downtown is essential to attracting more visitors and development.

“We’ve got to make sure that we utilize the transportation as a catalyst to give us that extra push to go toward becoming a destination,” he said.