THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, July 7, 1996 TAG: 9607070071
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY LISE OLSEN, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 132 lines
For 30 years, Cathy Allen has lived with a phantom commuter train in her back yard.
The tracks run right behind the house she and her husband bought in Virginia Beach as 19-year-old newlyweds. They raised three children here, and now grandchildren come by to play.
In all these years, the Allens have made lots of home improvements. But each time, they wondered whether Norfolk and Virginia Beach would finally fund improvements to the old track behind their house and start a commuter rail service between downtown Norfolk and the Oceanfront. And whether their money would be wasted on a place they could not resell, or would lose.
For a long time, they pretended it wouldn't happen. But gradually, the Allens have grown to believe that passenger rail will - perhaps must - come to Hampton Roads.
``I have mixed feelings - we've lived here a long time,'' says Cathy, a school bus driver. It's a beautiful summer day, her yard is filled with flowers, and she is watching a grandchild.
But then her voice changes from wistful to practical.
``I know progress needs to go on, and I think this is the most feasible way to go, and traffic is getting worse.''
A railroad already ties the Virginia Beach Oceanfront to downtown Norfolk, some 20 miles away - but no commuters can take it. The track runs west through the traditionally black neighborhood of Seatack, into the Oceana neighborhood with its noisy jets and big old trees, and finally through Thalia, paralleling Interstate 44. From there it makes its way to the Allens' back yard, then continues west through the industrial areas along Witchduck Road, passing a rock-climbing gym and a carpet shop - and finally, it enters Norfolk, passing Norfolk State University on its way downtown.
Down by the beach, its tracks are heavily weeded. A tenant bike shop and bright paint have transformed the old passenger station on Norfolk Avenue. Farther west, whistling freight trains still frequent it, but most don't go much east of the Norfolk/Virginia Beach city line.
Regionalists dream of a modern track with frequent passenger trains, after multimillion-dollar improvements. For them, it's the region's only hope of avoiding gridlock or double-decker highways.
But for people who live in neighborhoods along the Norfolk Southern line, the project has become something of a phantom train - an idea that appears, and disappears.
Each time, the idea inspires a noisy debate that rises, then fades, like a train whistle in the wind.
But will it ever happen?
The whistle has grown louder again this year: A favorable federal study has been finished, the Norfolk City Council has approved it. The Virginia Beach City Council is set to vote Tuesday. But the council could delay or kill it because some of its members are angry over an unrelated issue: Norfolk's recent release of a water study that could jeopardize the Beach's pipeline project to Lake Gaston.
The train, if it comes, will cross mostly working-class neighborhoods - places with relatively small houses and low family incomes. These neighborhoods tend to be more integrated than others in the region, according to the 1990 census.
And the folks who live near the tracks tend to be more likely to take public transportation.
In Norfolk's Brambleton neighborhood, near the Norfolk State campus, Adrienne Poindexter, nearly 20, leans against a railing on her front porch. She's waiting for a ride - again.
Poindexter depends on public transportation - like a lot of her fellow students. On this day, she hopes her dad will bring her a car to end her endless waits for bus rides to two summer jobs.
``I hate it! I cannot stand it,'' she says. ``I've got to get a car before I go crazy.''
For Poindexter, of Lynchburg, a light-rail line couldn't be built fast enough.
A Norfolk State freshman, she begins her day waiting for a bus to work - and ends her day waiting for a bus ride home. In the summer she gets up at 7:30 a.m. to get to work by 9:30. In the afternoons, the buses are crowded and hot. At night, she has to wait on a dark street corner for a ride home.
The train would change that. With a station near campus, she could quickly get to work at the mall, get downtown fast, and even go to the beach. In the month she has been in Norfolk, she's never been to the Oceanfront. The bus takes too long to get there.
``That would be neat!'' she says. Maybe if she takes school slowly enough, Poindexter adds, she might still be here by the time the line is built.
Most people in Hampton Roads have cars. But some say they would be happy to leave them at home and take the train to save on gas.
Alice Martin, who was shopping recently near a proposed light-rail station on Virginia Beach Boulevard in the Beach, said she'd love to be free of her car.
``I think that would be great. I could leave my car and go all the way to Waterside - and it's safer,'' said Martin, a retired hairdresser who lives in the city's Little Neck area. ``We have to connect the cities anyway! Have you looked at the highways? There's so much traffic on the interstate it's unreal. The Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel - I think it's a disaster.''
Martin lives just minutes from one of the proposed stops and fondly remembers trains from her home country, Germany.
But not everyone is as enthusiastic. Take Nancy Sabatino, a retiree who rents a house in Thalia Village just two doors down from the tracks. A New York native, Sabatino also remembers trains from her younger days - but not as fondly as Martin. She thinks of them as bringing noise and trouble.
``It brings people into an area, say from Norfolk, who don't even know the neighborhood. You're going to bring unwanted crime,'' she said.
For many who live, work and shop along the proposed rail line, the phantom train has become an idea they live with - but can't quite believe. Many newcomers had not heard of the project. But when asked about it, everyone seems to have an opinion.
And most have the same question: Whether this time the Virginia Beach council will actually support the idea, after years of tacit or active opposition.
``I think it's been talked about so long that people don't think it's going to happen,'' Cathy Allen said.
By Tuesday, she may have her answer - or perhaps just another delay. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
CATHY ALLEN, RIGHT, OWNS A VIRGINIA BEACH HOME NEXT TO THE TRACKS
``I know progress needs to go on, an I think this is the most
feasible way to go, and traffic is getting worse.''
VICKI CRONIS/The Virginian-Pilot
For Adrienne Poindexter, a Norfolk State University student who
depends on public transportation, the light-rail line couldn't be
finished soon enough. The freshman says the train would allow her to
get to work and downtown more quickly, and get her to the Oceanfront
for the first time.
Color graphic\The Virginian-Pilot
Source: Tidewater Transportion District Commission study
Proposed Light-Rail Line
[shows stops along the proposed line]
KEYWORDS: LIGHT RAIL REGIONALISM by CNB