4305 East 21 St. Avenue, Tampa, Florida 33605-2300
Phone: (813) 623-5835 Fax - (813) 664-1119

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

January 20, 2000 - TAMPA, FLORIDA - Up <> Down. Up <> Down. Up <> Down. No, its not directions for how to do push ups or on how to follow a bouncing ball. Yes, it is the direction of travel on the Uptown � Downtown Connector service provided by the Hillsborough Area Regional Transit Authority (HART).

The Uptown <> Downtown Connector, Route 96, is a �hop on and hop off� service which is free. It runs Monday through Friday from 6:00 a.m. until 6:00 p.m., serving conveniently located trolley stops every 10 minutes. It was implemented to improve circulation throughout the downtown Tampa central business district and to help alleviate the large problem of inadequate and costly parking. It connects outlying parking lots with office buildings, workplaces with restaurants and business services, area hotels with the Tampa Convention Center, and Harbour Island with downtown. Additionally, the Uptown <> Downtown Connector links with 26 bus routes on the Marion Street Transit Parkway and at HARTline�s Northern Terminal so people can continue their travel to destinations throughout Hillsborough County.

You may have already admired the nostalgic yellow rubber-wheeled trolleys circulating around downtown. More than 70,000 passengers have hopped on the Uptown <> Downtown Connector since it began operating in April 1999. In January, the route began traveling on Tampa Street and Florida Avenue to reach more downtown businesses.

For more information about the free Uptown <> Downtown Connector or other bus routes, transit fares and any of our many customer services, call the HARTinfo Line at (813) 254-4278 and at 626-9158 for TDD/hearing impaired.

-HART-