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About The Tide LRT
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The Tide is a 7.4 mile starter Light Rail Transit (LRT) line in Norfolk, VA, connecting Eastern Virginia Medical School, Norfolk State University and Downtown Norfolk. Daily ridership in 2011 was projected at 2,900 passengers and the $318 million system is estimated to cost $6.2 million a year to operate.
History
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In November 1999, the City of Virginia Beach conducted a referendum regarding the construction and operation of light rail into Virginia Beach along the Norfolk Southern railroad right-of-way. The proposed route would connect downtown Norfolk to the Virginia Beach oceanfront. The referendum led to a community discussion of the proposed light rail and feeder bus system. Local media and many special interest groups debated the matter in great detail, using information provided by a DEIS (Draft Environmental Impact Statement). The voters of Virginia Beach rejected the proposed light rail system. The Virginia Beach City Council then passed a 10-year resolution declaring that the city would no longer have any future involvement in the proposed light rail line. Years later, a major economic and development hub has been built along the Norfolk Southern rail corridor, known as the Virginia Beach Town Center. The new Town Center, along with record high gas prices in 2008, has now stirred up a renewed public interest in light rail which can now easily connect to the current rail line being constructed in Norfolk. A new referendum on light rail will not necessarily be needed in Virginia Beach due to the 10-year expiration of the previous referendum.
Since then, the City of Virginia Beach agreed to purchase the portion of the former Norfolk & Southern Railway right-of-way within Virginia Beach from Norfolk Southern. This line extends from the Norfolk/Virginia Beach boundary (near the end of the light rail line in Norfolk), continuing almost due east through the Pembroke Town Center area to Birdneck Road, ending very near the Oceanfront area of the resort city. However, no firm plans (e.g. for LRT, Bus Rapid Transit, or other uses) have been announced for the purchased right-of-way. Public transit advocates generally like the move.
After Virginia Beach pulled out of a proposal that would have seen the construction of a light rail line connecting Downtown Norfolk with the Virginia Beach oceanfront in 1999, Norfolk began developing a network that would be constructed entirely within its city limits.
Beginning in 2000, HRT and federal transit officials worked to create a plan that would attract federal funding. On September 22, 2006, the Federal Transit Administration announced that the proposal met federal criteria for design, and would receive funding for a final design. On October 1, 2007, the FTA signed the agreement to appropriate $128 million for the construction of the network. The remainder of the project will be divided three ways, with the city of Norfolk contributing $33 million, the Commonwealth of Virginia contributing $31.9 million, and $39.2 million being contributed from other federal sources.
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Officials announced in June 2007 that the system would be called The Tide, a name that beat out other proposed names, including Bay Runner, First Rail, Dash, Bay Breeze, Sail and Shore Line.
The trains generally run every 15 minutes; they run every 10 minutes during peak periods and every 30 minutes during early weekend mornings and late evenings. Service will be from 6:00 a.m. through 10 p.m Monday-Thursday, 6:00 a.m. through midnight on Friday-Saturday, 7:00 a.m through 9:00 p.m. on Sundays, and 9:00 a.m. through 9:00 p.m. on Holidays.
On 21 June 2011, HRTs announced the line would open on 19 August initially with demonstration rides followed by regular service beginning on 22 August. Due to high ridership during the initial demonstration period, estimated at over 46,000 riders, the demonstration period was extended, with regular service to begin on 28 August.
On 21 September 2011, Hampton Roads Transit announced the introduction of online ticketing and onboard WiFi to The Tide.
Financing
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The line was primarily financed by a $232 million grant from the Federal Transit Administration approved in October 2007. Additional federal funding came from a $32.8 million grant from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The final cost of the project was estimated to be $318.5 million, $106 million over the original estimate. Nevertheless, according to Norfolk mayor Paul Fraim, at a per-mile cost of less than $27 million per kilometer, The Tide ended up as if "not the lowest on a per-mile basis of any light rail, [...] at the very bottom of the list."
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Rolling Stock
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In September 2007, HRT’s commission voted to purchase nine Siemens-built S70 vehicles, similar to those currently in operation for the LYNX Blue Line in Charlotte, North Carolina. These vehicles will form The Tide's initial fleet of light rail vehicles. The first car arrived on October 6, 2009.
Image by norfolkdistrict at http://www.flickr.com/photos/armyengineersnorfolk/sets/72157627509962412/with/6076777501/
Route
The Tide is designed with the hope that TOD (Transit-oriented development) will be constructed along the light rail line, creating a smart growth transit corridor to help guide growth using compact mixed-use development practices, as well as curbing traffic congestion.
Most of the Tide's route east of downtown Norfolk operates on newly-laid track along the former Norfolk & Southern Railway line that runs due east to the resort area of Virginia Beach. The Norfolk Southern Railway had previously abandoned that line. That right-of-way had carried both freight and passenger traffic until the end of World War II, and then operated as a freight-only railway for several additional decades. The current eastern end of The Tide is at Newtown Road, which is the Norfolk-Virginia Beach boundary line.
By contrast, The Tide's route from the Harbor Park area west within downtown Norfolk and north-west to the Medical Center area is entirely new right-of-way.
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Ridership
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Quote
With a full calendar month of collecting fares, The Tide is averaging 5,056 daily weekday trips. Hampton Roads Transit projected that 2,900 trips would be taken each weekday the year the rail opens, and 7,130 daily rides by 2030.http://hamptonroads.com/2011/10/ridership-norfolks-light-rail-exceeding-expectations
Counting weekends (The Tide runs a shortened schedule on Sundays), average daily ridership has been nearly 4,870.
But will the big numbers hold?
Ridership on the newest light-rail systems in Phoenix; Charlotte, N.C.; Houston; and Seattle grew after launching. Phoenix Metro started with daily weekday ridership in the low 30,000s and two years later was in the low 40,000s.
"Our original assumption was that, at some point, we'd level out to what our normal ridership should be, but instead we continue to see growth," said Hillary Foose, a Metro spokeswoman.
Charlotte's LYNX went from 11,500 boardings a day to 15,300 in its first year. Houston's ridership doubled the first year and now is posting 36,000 daily trips, triple 2004's opening months. Seattle's system has grown from 15,000 daily trips to 25,000 in two years.
Transit Oriented Development (TOD): Before & After
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Norfolk joins the list of cities economically separating themselves from Jacksonville by investing in fixed transit to spur job creation and long term sustainable economic development. The following aerials below show various locations along the new light rail line where infill TOD has occurred while the transit line was under construction.
2007 on the left. 2011 on the right.
2007 on the left. 2011 on the right.
Future
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The Commonwealth of Virginia's Department of Rail & Public Transportation is studying possible extensions to The Tide in several different directions within the multi-city Hampton Roads area.
Hampton Roads Transit, the Hampton Roads Transportation Planning Organization, and local cities are exploring extensions of the starter line. Possible extensions might run north to the Norfolk Naval Base, east to the Virginia Beach oceanfront and resort area, west to Portsmouth, and south to Chesapeake.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tide_Light_Rail
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Noone
October 14, 2011, 06:05:25 AMNow its Jacksonville's turn. Even if its the Trail to Jail. Lets bring people Downtown. Bay St.
Doctor_K
October 14, 2011, 11:21:59 AMTrail to Jail. LoL. Has a certain ring to it. A. Phillip Randolph serving the Arena, Baseball Grounds, and Stadium, down Bay St. pas Maxwell House, the Shipyards/Berkman/Club cluster, Hyatt, Landing/Omni/TU, Prime.
Boom.
fsujax
October 14, 2011, 11:25:03 AMyeah, well we still have people saying that we dont have the density or enough activity acenters to connect, every time I hear someone make that comment...it boils me over!
Doctor_K
October 14, 2011, 11:28:07 AMDitto. Only I flat out tell them they're uninformed and ignorant, and shouldn't speak about something they know nothing about.
Gets me a lot of dirty looks, mostly. But if it makes just one person go look it up and actually do some digging, then I've accomplished something.
thelakelander
October 14, 2011, 11:28:36 AMJust keep hitting them over the head with the growing list of sunbelt and western that have successfully invested in fixed transit (ex. Charlotte, Nashville, Memphis, Norfolk, Savannah, San Diego, Salt Lake City, Houston, Albuquerque, Little Rock, Phoenix, etc.). I find that its a great way to get naysayers backpeddling.
iLenin
October 14, 2011, 04:04:01 PMHowever the east side is something more important than a train to jail, ha ha
tufsu1
October 14, 2011, 08:56:24 PMI am in Charlotte right now and rode their LRT today...lots of new development has occurred along the line...and ridership seems good (most seats taken at 2pm, full trains at 7pm).
and to fsujax's point above, density along much of the Charlotte line is probably less than we have in Jax.
thelakelander
October 17, 2011, 09:58:24 AMHere are a few pics taken by Cirrus at http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?p=5446995&posted=1#post5446995
LRV maintenance facility and rail yards, on the left
The LRT line in Monticello Avenue, adjacent to downtown's MacArthur Square mall.
Another shot near MacArthur Square in downtown.
MacArthur Square Station in the heart of downtown Norfolk. To accommodate this station a non-historic low rise building and surface parking lot was lost.
Notice the cafe on the ground level of the office building next door. TOD comes in the form of small retail as well.
Outside of downtown, the LRT line runs on an abandoned rail ROW. This would be similar to using the S-Line for LRT.
fsujax
October 17, 2011, 10:29:55 AMgreat pics. Too bad it was a dreary looking day. If only we would have had this vision 10 years ago and stuck with it!
thelakelander
October 17, 2011, 10:38:57 AMIt's not too late. Ten years ago, LRT in Norfolk was a pipe dream. We just have to work twice as hard to change things.
thelakelander
October 17, 2011, 10:44:11 AMCharlotte is less dense than Jacksonville and has always been. The funny thing about fixed-transit that we tend to overlook is the most important indicator to a system's success isn't the overall population density of an area or corridor. It's the system's ability to efficiently connect pedestrians with a mix major destinations, especially at the terminal spots.
For example, find a way to connect the front door of a hospital, shopping mall, college, cultural/entertainment attraction, etc. while penetrating residential neighborhoods along the way and you've got yourself a winner in a place as large as NYC or as small as Jacksonville and Norfolk. On the other hand, connect that line with parking lots and miss direct tie stops to major destinations along the way and it will fail.
tufsu1
February 24, 2012, 11:16:22 AMand here's another update from Norfolk...ridership still way ahead of expectations...and nearby retail gets a boost too!
http://hamptonroads.com/2012/02/sixmonthold-norfolk-light-rail-beating-expectations
http://hamptonroads.com/2012/02/some-stores-near-norfolk-light-rail-stations-see-boost
thelakelander
February 24, 2012, 12:59:03 PMLove some of the quotes from these articles. It just confirms what we've been claiming all along about bringing rail back to Jacksonville's urban core. This happened in San Diego, Charlotte, and Salt Lake City. Now Norfolk is getting the urban connectivity economic benefit fixed transit brings.
Let's get with the program Jacksonville!
fieldafm
February 24, 2012, 01:42:57 PMNot counting the increased revenue from a downtown TIF district with new businesses opening up shop, or increased property tax revenues(properties near fixed transit have higher values) or all of the ancillery benefits of spending local dollars at local stores(where more money gets recirculated in the local economy), or additional concurrency money and jobs generated from TOD or additional jobs created b/c of the construction of the line... just this one small store alone would add about $21,000 a year in extra sales tax revenue from the increased sales generated by its proximity to light rail.
I am interested to see what the increase in property tax revenues have been from property adjacent to these lines?
Dog Walker
February 24, 2012, 04:31:14 PMIf you have ever driven a car in Norfolk you will understand why their light rail line was such a hit. Population density might not drive light rail, but car density at their level sure does!
thelakelander
February 24, 2012, 04:35:43 PMOff the top of my head, it has stops at a university, baseball stadium, mall, pedestrian scale neighborhoods, downtown, and a medical center. It's a hit because it directly connects a mix of complementing uses together and is reliable. It's really as simple as that for this system, as well as most of the recently completed peers across the country. Population and car density aren't as influential on fixed transit as we tend to believe.