THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, December 4, 1995 TAG: 9512040031
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY TONY WHARTON, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 86 lines
Remember the streetcars that once ran through downtown? They were ripped out in 1948 to make room for more cars - vehicles of personal freedom and convenience.
Now, 50 years and millions of cars and umpteen parking garages later, city officials are sheepishly admitting they might want the streetcars back.
``You may well ask, why didn't you keep it when you had it?'' said City Councilman Mason Andrews, who remembers the streetcars and hopes for their return.
``We should have never taken them out,'' said David Rice, head of the Norfolk Redevelopment and Housing Authority. ``There used to be one that ran all the way to Ocean View, did you know that? I could talk all day about them.''
Now the city, NRHA and Tidewater Regional Transit have launched a feasibility study for a new streetcar service - now called ``fixed-track trolleys'' - in downtown Norfolk.
Norfolk is engaged in a long-term push to make over the downtown area. More than $100 million in public and private money has been invested in the effort. But so far, it is based entirely on the automobile.
``One of the problems that's developed with downtown is that there are a lot of things, but they aren't all as close to each other as they could be,'' Rice said. ``We're trying to make it so that you don't have to get into your car and go to Waterside, and then get into your car and drive to MacArthur Center, etc.''
Downtowns ideally are meant to be walked around, not driven through. But several of Norfolk's downtown destinations are a bit too far apart - with nothing in particular between them - for strolling.
Rice said the tentative route for the new streetcars would have them run down Granby Street from just shy of Brambleton Avenue to Plume Street, down Plume to St. Paul's Boulevard, and cutting through the City Hall plaza to the Harbor Park parking lots. A spur of the line also would run to Waterside.
That route would be suitable for dropping people within a short distance of downtown hotels, shopping and entertainment, including MacArthur Center, the upscale mall that is to be built next year.
At the Harbor Park end, the line could connect to a Norfolk-Virginia Beach light rail line, if that system were ever built. But the feasibility study is designed to look at streetcars that could exist without the long-debated light rail.
The goal is to provide an incentive to people to either leave light rail cars and hop on the trolley, or drive off the interstate, park immediately, and then get on the trolley.
Norfolk's model is Portland, Ore., where a light rail line brings commuters in from the suburbs and a trolley carries them around downtown.
Rice, who rode the trolleys in Portland, said, ``It was a lot of fun, with everybody making jokes and talking to the conductor and everything.''
There are potential drawbacks, however. For one, officials don't know the cost. That is always an important consideration, especially in Norfolk with its tight budgets.
Second, Rice said, the trolley tracks would have to be laid in the streets with the lines running overhead. That, too, would have to be worked out in Norfolk's fairly cramped downtown.
``You've got to run it in the street right-of-way,'' Rice said. ``The idea is that it would run on the street and run with the traffic, stop at street lights and everything.''
So why couldn't people just use buses?
Norfolk city planner Jim Gildea said, ``There is evidence that people will more likely ride the trolley, both as a fun experience and a practical system, than they will a rubber-tired system like buses.'' ILLUSTRATION: TIDEWATER REGIONAL TRANSIT Photo
The trolley setup in Portland, Ore., is the model for Norfolk's
plan. There, a light-rail line brings commuters in from the suburbs
and a trolley carries them around downtown. David Rice, head of the
Norfolk Redevelopment and Housing Authority, said, ``It was a lot
of fun, with everybody making jokes and talking to the conductor and
everything.''
Graphic/The Virginian-Pilot
Tentative route of Downtown Trolley
For copy of graphic, see microfilm
KEYWORDS: TROLLEY by CNB