THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, June 5, 1996 TAG: 9606050418
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY KAREN WEINTRAUB, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: 70 lines
Though the Beach City Councilhelped kill a proposal for a regional light rail system seven years ago, it seems poised to support the concept now.
But in a work session Tuesday, the council questioned the extent of the route from downtown Norfolk to the Virginia Beach resort strip. The council could vote on the project as soon as Tuesday.
The biggest concern with the light rail plan presented by TRT Tuesday was that it might be too modest.
``We may be making this project too small because of fear of the total cost, and losing sight of where the best return is going to be,'' council member Louis R. Jones said during the meeting.
Council members Louisa M. Strayhorn, Linwood O. Branch III and Vice Mayor W.D. Sessoms Jr. said they agreed that any commuter rail line should run all the way to the Norfolk Naval Station, rather than stopping in downtown Norfolk.
``That would serve the Virginia Beach residents more than a line between (downtown) Norfolk and the beach,'' Jones said.
Strayhorn, a member of the Tidewater Transportation District Commission, which supported the rail proposal last month, said she thinks it would be willing to commit to quickly extending the line to the naval station.
She said she will present a resolution to the City Council next week that would specify that the base be the first destination beyond downtown Norfolk.
Jones said Tuesday evening that he wants to go further than that. He said it would be much easier for him to support light rail if the initial line went to the naval station.
``If that were to become a reality, I think it would be hard for us not to go for it,'' he said.
The line would use an existing Norfolk Southern track that roughly parallels Virginia Beach Boulevard. Spurs could eventually reach southern Virginia Beach, Chesapeake and Portsmouth. It would be funded with a combination of federal, state and local money.
Dennis Probst, a consultant whose studies are the basis for Tidewater Regional Transit's proposal, said area residents would have to agree to a tax increase to pay for the system.
``If the region can't accept that, it won't get rail,'' he said.
He said the two most likely options are a 3-cent to 5-cent local gas tax surcharge, which would penalize people who choose to drive instead of taking mass transit, or a 0.25-to 0.5-percent sales tax increase which would put a lot of the funding burden on tourists.
A regional gas tax would have to be approved by the General Assembly.
A rail line connecting the Virginia Beach Pavilion at the Oceanfront with downtown Norfolk would cost about $386 million to build and about $11.5 million annually to operate, Probst said. By comparison, he said, adding additional lanes to Route 44, would cost up to $1 billion, and double-decking the highway to avoid taking more property could run as high as $2 billion.
The train, and an expanded bus system that would feed into it, would cost riders about $1.25 a trip, according to TRT estimates.
The line would create about 3,900 jobs by the year 2015 and contribute $246 million to local property tax rolls, Probst said.
Councilmember Barbara M. Henley, a strong supporter of the rail proposal, said she is excited about the possibility for urban-type development around the eight stations that will be in Virginia Beach.
The Beach and Norfolk City Councils are expected to vote on the rail proposal before June 19. That's when a unit of the Hampton Roads Planning District Commission will decide whether to put the project on its long-range work program.
If the groups support the plan, TRT could begin an 18-month study of the project's cost, benefits and environmental impacts.
After the study is complete, the public agencies would have to decide whether to proceed with the rail system.
KEYWORDS: VIRGINIA BEACH CITY COUNCIL by CNB