DATE: Monday, September 15, 1997            TAG: 9709130016

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B8   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Editorial 

                                            LENGTH:   53 lines

LIGHT-RAIL PLAN HISTORIC STEP SO FAR, SO GOOD

The Tidewater Transportation District Commission just awarded a $5 million contract for preliminary engineering and design work on a light-rail system connecting Virginia Beach and Norfolk.

This is the closest Hampton Roads has ever gotten to having modern light rail.

An earlier $1 million study predicted that new commercial development near the proposed 13 stops on a line connecting the Virginia Beach Pavilion and downtown Norfolk would total 1,835,000 square feet, half of it in the Pembroke area. Fourteen of the region's 20 major employment centers would be within walking distance of that stretch of line, the study showed. Consultants estimate that 13,000 to 15,500 people would ride the train daily at first, and more would hop aboard as road traffic worsened.

According to the first study, the railway between downtown Norfolk and the

Oceanfront would boost annual payrolls by $88 million, increase retail sales by $56 million and improve nearby property values by more than $246 million.

Those numbers seem to say, ``Build that sucker.''

But much more will be known after the new design and enginnering work, which will identify rail routes to Norfolk Naval Base and Norfolk International Airport and include a preliminary analysis of future extensions to Chesapeake and Portsmouth. The planners also will suggest ways to pay for the line. The estimated cost of the initial Virginia Beach-Norfolk segment is $376 million.

Beach City Council support for light rail is lukewarm, at best. Some council members consider it to be a Norfolk scheme to suck tourists away from the Oceanfront.

Still, on the initial rail segment, Virginia Beach would have twice as many stops as Norfolk, and far more Virginia Beach residents than Norfolk residents would commute by light rail.

Tidewater Regional Transit has received from federal sources about $4 million toward the $5 million plannng project. Regional officials have requested more money from Congress to complete the preliminary work and begin final plannng.

Pilot staff writer Debbie Messina reported that preliminary design work is expected to take about 2 1/2 years and the final design to take 2 more years. Construction could begin in 2001.

Many obstacles remain, however. Virginia Beach City Council endorsed the study on the condition that, before light rail is built, Beach voters must approve the system and taxes to pay for it.

The new plan should demonstrate in detail how Hampton Roads would benefit from light rail and should provide voters ample reasons to support it.

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