THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, January 19, 1996 TAG: 9601190001
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A12 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Medium: 69 lines
Within a year, a bus service will be launched to carry a person from the Oceanfront to Colonial Williamsburg or The Pottery for $1.50 one way. The price is right, but the ride will require three or four transfers, involve three transit systems and take at least two hours one way - no bargain with crying kids.
What's needed is a single regionally funded transit system that eventually could be a boon to the area's tourist industry, not to mention residents.
Tidewater Regional Transit commissioners took a giant step in that direction this week when they unanimously approved a nonbinding memorandum providing details for a merger with PENTRAN. TRT serves South Hampton Roads; PENTRAN serves Newport News and Hampton. Officials from James City County Transit, serving that county and Williamsburg, have discussed joining, also.
According to the memorandum, Michael S. Townes, the PENTRAN executive director, would retain that title with the merged organization, yet to be named. (Naturally we'll campaign to call it Hampton Roads Transit.) TRT Executive Director James C. Echols is retiring this year, after delaying retirement a year to promote the merger.
Central administrative offices would be in TRT's current headquarters on Monticello Avenue in Norfolk. That site was picked, Townes said, to minimize the number of employees who would have to move. Also, the building has space for transit employees from the Peninsula.
PENTRAN commissioners are expected to approve the merger Jan. 25. Local city councils will be asked to approve the merger within 45 days of that date. They should for four good reasons:
1. Public transportation could be provided on a regional basis. In Hampton Roads we live regionally but govern locally. We need a transit system that matches the way we live. ``We could be the tie that binds,'' Townes said.
2. A transit system serving an area with more than 1.5 million people would have a much stronger voice in Congress and the General Assembly. With federal transit dollars shrinking, that's especially important.
3. A merged system would achieve economies of scale. An obvious saving: Only one executive director would be required for an area that now has three.
4. Having a single Hampton Roads transit system would give the area another reason to think of itself as a region rather than as separate cities.
The regional transit system can be effective only if it is regionally funded. Currently, transit systems must beg for funds every year from each of the localities they serve. Long-term and regional planning is difficult, if not impossible.
Last month the Virginia Beach City Council voted 10-1 in favor of a motor-fuel tax, possibly 2 percent, to fund the transit system. A bill is being drafted in the General Assembly to permit cities to provide such funding, if they want. Two transit systems in Northern Virginia already are funded by that method.
Hampton Roads seems to be awakening to the reality that it is a muscular economic region, the 26th most populous in the nation. A regionally funded transit system would provide a tremendous stride in the right direction.
Some day, that ride from the Oceanfront to Colonial Williamsburg could take 20 minutes on a light-rail system, with forks to major tourist attractions. Imagine how tourists would love that. Residents would love it too, if only because it meant fewer cars on the roads.
A final point: Adequate cheap transportation is crucial for welfare recipients soon to be forced to find jobs.
All Hampton Roads cities should back a merged transit system and a regional funding system. by CNB