by Paula C. Squires
Norfolk makes history Friday when it begins the official operation of The Tide, Virginia’s first light rail system. Twenty years in the making, the 7.4-mile, public-transit system puts the Hampton Roads port city into an elite category, with only 34 other cities in the country boasting light rail.
“We are in fact the smallest city in the country to have light rail,” said Norfolk Mayor Paul Fraim. To see the system finally finished — following construction delays and cost overruns — “is exciting for the whole community. There’s a wonderfully positive buzz in Norfolk about the start of light rail.”
Despite the challenges, Fraim says the system will have a huge, beneficial impact. “It solidifies our role as the business and financial hub of a region with 1.6 million people,” he told Virginia Business. Plus, the $318.5 million investment — which came in at $20 million below the expected budgeted figure — helped position Norfolk to be a contender for inter-city passenger rail, which Amtrak plans to start in a couple of years.
The Tide opens to the public tomorrow at 6 a.m. It runs from Eastern Virginia Medical Center through downtown Norfolk, adjacent to I-264 and ends at the Virginia Beach city line at Newtown Road. While the cost for such a short distance seems eye-popping at $43 million a mile, Fraim says it’s one of the least expensive systems on a per-mile basis in the country. The Federal Transit Administration paid for about 60 percent of the project, Fraim said, with Norfolk kicking in $49.7 million, or about 20 percent, and the state paying the remaining 20 percent.
He and other city officials are buoyant as they begin a round of festivities that start today. The City of Norfolk holds a ribbon cutting ceremony at 5:30 p.m. at MacArthur Square. A reception follows this evening. Then starting tomorrow morning at 6 a.m. the public is invited to ride The Tide free throughout the weekend, with fare collection beginning on Monday, August 22. The cost is $1.50 per trip, with discounts available for youth and senior residents. Businesses along the system’s 11 stations also are offering special events and discounts throughout the weekend in celebration of The Tide’s opening.
W. Randy Wright, president of the Hampton Roads Public Transportation Alliance, a nonprofit citizen advocacy group, plans to be one of the first to ride Friday morning. He served as a member of the Norfolk City Council for 18 years, until July of 2010, when he says he lost a bid for re-election by about 100 votes. “I lost because of the cost overruns associated with the light rail project. I have no regrets, because it was the right thing to do. I spent 12 years of my life working on The Tide.”
He says the investment will pay off in the long run, with The Tide acting as an economic engine to draw more corporate investment. He also thinks it will be a draw for young professionals, who prefer an urban lifestyle with public transit. “First and foremost, it gives Norfolk a position nationally and internationally that doesn’t exist today. There are only 35 light rail systems, and now we’re going to be in an elite category.“
Fraim, Wright and other city officials hope The Tide will be extended in the future to the city of Virginia Beach and other communities. One of the goals behind light rail is to take some traffic off the region’s congested roads. According to Fraim, Norfolk has a work force of military and civilians in about 223,000 jobs. About 111,000 of them are filled by people who drive to the city every day and then drive home someplace outside of Norfolk. “About 82 percent of those folks are driving alone, and that number is growing,” said Fraim. “It’s becoming increasingly difficult for the work force and the students and visitors coming to Norfolk to do that in a timely fashion. If the work force can’t get to the jobs, the jobs will go outside of the region. So if we can move some people out of their cars, it will help make the workday travel easier.”
Another person glad to see the arrival of opening day is Philip Shucet, president and CEO of Hampton Roads Transit, operator of The Tide. Shucet, a career transportation executive who served as Virginia’s commissioner of transportation from 2002 to 2005, took the reins at HRT in Feb. 2010, three years after construction began on The Tide. By then the project was behind schedule by a year and a half and faced cost overruns of more than $100 million and allegations of mismanagement.
“When I first got there, the sentiment was not pleasant,” Shucet recalled. “There were a lot of unhappy people who were just plain aggravated that this project was going to cost so much more than they had been led to believe.” Originally, the project was supposed to be complete by January 2010 at a cost of $232 million. Now, with the inaugural ride just hours away, “ I would bet you a good dinner that if I went out on the street right now, I would have to look long and hard to find someone who was not in a good mood about The Tide.”
During the past 18 months, Shucet stopped using outside consultants and credits the staff at HRT, the city of Norfolk and the project’s 10 contractors with coming together to get the job done as efficiently as possible. The system, powered by electricity, consists of more than just the trains: there are 11 stations, park and ride lots, maintenance areas, communications equipment and an overhead electrical system.
HRT began running the trains in June on what is known as a pre-revenue service so operators could test run schedules and equipment and practice responses to emergency situations such as flooded streets and power outages. During practice runs, two vehicles collided with the trains, provoking some residents to raise safety questions about the project’s safety signals. The crashes did not result in life-threatening injuries.
Once the 100-foot long trains starting running through the city, Shucet said he felt a shift in public perception “I think that has done a tremendous amount to change the attitude to, ‘Wow. This is really happening. It’s really here and it’s cool.’ Going forward, Shucet expects The Tide to influence every land-use decision in the region. “It says something about the courage Norfolk had to step out there and take a lot of blows to see it through to the end.”
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