November/December 2007

The Tide Has Come

After years of roadblocks, the face of transportation in Hampton Roads will officially change as Norfolk's light rail plan gets moving.

By Jessica Carlson
Additional reporting by Pam Majumdar and Linnea White

It's the first day of October, and Norfolk Councilman W. Randy Wright looks like he's walking on a cloud. "Ride The Tide ... Ride The Tide ..." he says repeatedly in a singsong voice as he meanders through a jubilant crowd outside downtown Norfolk's MacArthur Memorial.

After more than a decade of planning and persuading, Wright's dream is finally becoming a reality—light rail is coming to Hampton Roads. At an afternoon ceremony on Oct. 1, the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) and Hampton Roads Transit (HRT) signed off on an agreement committing the FTA to provide $128 million for The Tide (the name of Norfolk's light rail system), finalizing the project's fate. Construction begins in November.

"It's just hard to even put in words," Wright says. "You know, you think about it—we've really been at just the Norfolk piece for eight years. It's a long time to bring a project to fruition and to birth it, so to speak. So if you want to see some folks really let their hair down—those that have agonized over this the past eight or nine years—today we set aside as the day to celebrate. Tomorrow, we start working."

GETTING ON TRACK
THE HISTORY OF LIGHT RAIL IN HAMPTON ROADS

Virginia Beach Derails the Project

Rewind 10 years, and you'll find Hampton Roads in a decidedly different political atmosphere—light rail seemed, well, light years away.

Tidewater Regional Transit—which subsequently merged with the Peninsula Transportation District Commission (PENTRAN) to create Hampton Roads Transit—conducted a study in the mid-1990s to assess transit and transportation improvements in south Hampton Roads. After evaluating the results, the organization proposed a light rail transit system extending from downtown Norfolk to the Virginia Beach Oceanfront. The 18.3 mile segment would use 14 miles of existing Norfolk Southern railroad right-of-way and cost an estimated $525 million to build. A second phase, which would extend to the Norfolk Naval Base, would cost another $539 million. Together, both phases of the project would cost more than $1 billion, half of which could be covered by federal funding.

"It was the Lexus of a line," says Wright, who was leading the crusade for the light rail even then. With stops at the Oceanfront, Virginia Beach's Town Center, downtown Norfolk and the Naval Base, the line would connect some of the region's major centers of activity.

But the Virginia Beach City Council was split on the subject—throughout the years, continued light rail studies received just enough votes from the council to keep the project alive. Then Vice Mayor Will Sessoms, Jr. moved to kill the city's role in the project for good, but the council ultimately voted to let the public decide in a Nov. 2, 1999 advisory referendum.

Virginia Beach voters were posed the question: "Should the City Council adopt an ordinance approving the development and financing of the proposed Virginia Beach-Norfolk-Naval Base Light Rail transit project?

With a yes vote, the proposed transit project would receive $1.9 million for additional study earmarked from the General Assembly earlier that year and would be able to compete for federal funding, $1.3 billion of which was still uncommitted at the time. The public's support would basically ensure that light rail would stay on the planning table for Virginia Beach.

But with a no vote, the council vowed to end further light rail discussion in Virginia Beach completely, possibly ruining the chances of any light rail project in Hampton Roads for years to come.

For the rest of this article, including a map of the light rail route, see the November/December issue of Hampton Roads Magazine, currently available on newsstands.