THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, June 12, 1996 TAG: 9606120501
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY KAREN WEINTRAUB AND ALEX MARSHALL, STAFF WRITERS
LENGTH: 73 lines
The Norfolk City Council unanimously decided to go ahead with a light rail study Tuesday, but its Virginia Beach counterpart decided it needed more time.
The Beach council delayed a vote for 30 days on whether to pursue passenger train service from downtown Norfolk to the resort area.
Rail supporters were glum Tuesday afternoon after the Beach's decision. Seven years ago, it was the Beach council's delays and then opposition that killed a similar rail proposal.
``The only reason I deferred it is because I didn't want to lose it,'' said Beach Councilwoman Louisa M. Strayhorn, a leader of the pro-rail effort, who made the motion for a delay.
Strayhorn said that by Monday, seven council members had told her they would support further study of the rail plan. But an article in Tuesday's Virginian-Pilot raised doubts in several of those council members' minds, Strayhorn said.
The article quoted a Norfolk Southern Corp. spokesman as saying that his company had not been properly informed about the proposal to use 15 1/2 miles of its tracks.
Beach Councilman Linwood O. Branch III said he did not feel comfortable voting on the rail issue without knowing whether Norfolk Southern - the region's only Fortune 500 company - supported the plan.
He and several other Beach council members said they expected to vote to authorize the study on July 9 after their questions are answered.
``Something this important, we've got to get everyone on board,'' Beach Councilman William W. Harrison Jr. said. ``Thirty days can't possibly mess things up.''
Over the next 30 days, Strayhorn and other rail supporters plan to lobby for the study. None of the Beach council members has come out publicly against the rail proposal, though several have questioned its price tag and route.
The proposed 18-mile system would cost $375 million to build and $11 million a year to operate. At the earliest, it would provide service beginning in 2003.
A connection to the Norfolk Naval Station, other South Hampton Roads cities, and, eventually, the Peninsula and Amtrak's East Coast network, could come later.
Norfolk council members said after their meeting Tuesday that they think the initial leg would relieve traffic problems on Route 44, one of the most congested roads in the region.
``We are looking into the future, when the roads are so clogged people are going to beg for an alternative,'' said Norfolk Councilman Joseph N. Green Jr.
By using the existing Norfolk Southern freight line, the passenger rail system could be built without buying large areas of land or having to relocate businesses and residents. Passenger trains ran between Norfolk and Virginia Beach along that line from 1883 to 1947.
``Today, we are reaching into our past in order to enhance our future,'' Green said.
The Beach council's decision will likely delay action by the Metropolitan Planning Organization, a group that sets area transportation priorities and which must approve projects to get federal funding.
The organization was scheduled to vote next week on the rail study.
Art Collins, who heads the Hampton Roads Planning District Commission and is on the MPO, said he hopes the delay will only be a temporary setback for the rail proposal.
``I don't know if this is a derailment or simply a loud click on the tracks,'' said Collins.
Jayne B. Whitney, program management director for the Tidewater Regional Transit agency, which would build and run the rail system, said the deferral means a delay in going to Washington to seek federal funding for the project.
``Here's who we're behind already,'' she said, pointing to a list of about 40 transit projects that have already requested federal funding. Those projects would cost the federal government about $1.2 billion, but next year's spending pot includes only about $600 million, Whitney said.
KEYWORDS: LIGHT RAIL TRT by CNB