Riding the Tide for OpSail

NORFOLK, Va. (WAVY) - The full parking lot and crowds outside Harbor Park before today's Tides game are really just a taste of what kind of traffic OpSail 2012 will bring to Norfolk in a couple weeks.

"It's our first time actually so far so good," said Jeff Drewiske who road the Tide for the first time this afternoon. He and his wife said they'll use it again.

"We would consider taking the Tide because then we don't have to worry about getting a parking spot and it's easy enough to get the family on there," said Katie Drewiske.

That's exactly what the City of Norfolk and Tom Holden with HRT want — more people to take advantage of public transportation during one of the biggest events of the summer.

"This has the potential to be very big, we want to make sure people understand there will be strong demand on all transportation services, roads, tunnels, etc," said Holden.

Normally light rail trains runs every 30 minutes. During OpSail 2012 rail will be picking people up as often as every seven minutes.

"You can avoid lines at the rail stations and an addition we going to have hand sale tickets at light rail stations," said Holden.

He recommends buying tickets in advance. Tom said there will be overflow parking at places like the Newtown Road Station. That's where Melissa Disher road the Tide with her kids. She said with all the family coming to town light rail seems like the best option.

"Our kids loved it, they screamed and cheered the whole way," said Disher.