5:19 PM EDT, July 27, 2010

Transportation officials in Norfolk are working to make sure people are safe when the Light Rail starts running.

Preventing a crash between a Light Rail train and a vehicle is what the city of Norfolk and HRT wants to work to prevent before the trains roll across the tracks.

Norfolk officials have already started working with HRT to install more traffic signals where the tracks intersect with the roadway.
They have also installed new pedestrian signals.

“One added feature in this project is we have installed pedestrian countdown signals,” said John Stevenson, Norfolk Senior Transportation Program Manager.

Stevenson showed NewsChannel 3 how the countdown actually allows people to see how much time they have to cross the street before the signal changes for either the trains or vehicle traffic.

While pedestrians can push a button to show they need to cross the street, the same type of system will be used with vehicles and trains – except instead of buttons there will be sensors.

Construction crews place sensors underneath the tracks several yards back from where the tracks intersect with the roadway. The sensors then activate the traffic signals telling it a train is on its way.

New signs are also popping up around the tracks, which Stevenson believes will help drivers and pedestrians be more aware of the Light Rail train.

Signs will say ‘Look’ with arrows pointing in both directions.

“It’s a fine balance to finding the right number and the correct type of signs to use,” Stevenson said.

And finding that balance is something Stevenson says his department is still working on as the Light Rail project nears completion.

13NEWS / WVEC.com

Posted on July 27, 2010 at 1:36 PM

NORFOLK — A Norfolk doctor sounded the alarm to HRT and city leaders about the proximity of light rail tracks to her office.

There is a ramp right in front of Dr. Susan Garvey’s York Street office leading directly to tracks with nothing to prevent the children she treats from running out in front of trains.

Many of her patients are autistic and “are fascinated by trains,” Garvey says.

As a result of her concern, HRT plans to reposition the handicap ramp and install a safety fence.

“I just don’t know if that will be enough,” Garvey said.

In 1999, when Virginia Beach voters were deciding whether to pursue light rail, the concept had no champion at the Beach.

The City Council didn’t campaign for it as a transportation strategy and land-use planning tool. Tourism officials didn’t make the case for easing resort area traffic and parking headaches. Business leaders didn’t push for a system that would help get their people around Hampton Roads more quickly.

The benefits of a line between downtown Norfolk, Norfolk Naval Station and the Oceanfront were lost on voters, and opponents preyed on their fears. The wording of the ballot question seemed to indicate a “yes” vote meant the City Council would finance and build the system. The wording aided the desired effect: light rail’s defeat.

Eleven years later – and months away from the opening of Norfolk’s 7.4-mile light rail line – some Virginia Beach leaders seem to have learned from their mistakes. As the Beach considers, again, whether to invest in its own 10.5-mile line, a coalition of business and community leaders has formed to promote light rail in the city.

Even before the environmental study is complete analyzing possible routes, costs, ridership numbers and how a transit system might be put together, representatives from environmental and planning groups, hotels, restaurants, real estate agencies, running and biking groups and members of Virginia Beach Vision are working on a marketing plan.

The group, Light Rail Now, realizes what the City Council apparently still hasn’t: That without leadership on tough issues, cities typically punt. They keep the transportation system that was designed for the 1960s. They reject new ways of doing business in favor of the broken status quo.

But when civic leaders and local elected officials make a strong case for a major investment, when they give voters information, ask their opinions and listen, there’s less animosity and more appreciation that the city has a bold plan that will help sustain it decades into the future.

Such was the case when Virginia Beach considered building new schools and a state-of-the-art convention center and preserving parks and open space.

For the next 18 months, city leaders must engage the public in a conversation about what city residents want in a transportation system. If light rail is the preference, what part should private industry play in building stations and other related facilities? If a multi-use trail can’t be built along the rail line, are there viable alternatives for bikes and pedestrians?

If not light rail, then what?

Studies have shown that a quick, mass evacuation of the region during a major emergency is impossible. Already, the state is using its construction money to patch roads, not build them.

The environmental study of mass transit options in Virginia Beach, due next spring, will provide details on costs and development possibilities. If the city learned anything from the 1999 referendum, it should be that getting accurate information to the public and incorporating its feedback are critical in creating consensus on what Virginia Beach needs to thrive.

Light Rail Now is wisely beginning those conversations now.

NORFOLK

After sitting idle for nearly nine months, trains will start moving along light-rail tracks in the next few weeks.

But they’ll be empty. The service won’t launch until May. The activity is part of an exhaustive vehicle testing schedule in preparation for carrying passengers. Everything on the trains will be checked – from horns and lights to brakes and motors.

“It’s a top-to-bottom, side-to-side, front-to-back test of the vehicles,” said Tom Holden, Hampton Roads Transit spokesman.

A four-person testing team from the cars’ manufacturer, Siemens Transportation Systems Inc., has arrived to begin work.

That means people must exercise caution near the tracks where the testing is centered, primarily between Brambleton Avenue and Ballentine Boulevard.

In the first phase, each of the nine train cars will be moved from a holding area behind Norfolk State University to a temporary maintenance shelter east of Ballentine Boulevard near Norfolk Southern’s freight tracks. There, all the components of the train cars will be inspected.

The $179,000 shelter was built because construction of the vehicle storage and maintenance facility is behind schedule after NSU requested a redesign of the building. Construction is now under way, and steel is rising from the ground close to the intersection of Brambleton Avenue and Interstate 264.

Overall, Norfolk’s $338 million starter light-rail line is a year and a half behind schedule and more than $100 million over budget.

The next testing phase will begin in mid-August and be more dynamic. The vehicles will run along a 3/4-mile section of track between Brambleton Avenue and Ballentine Boulevard.

The trains will not pass through at-grade street crossings during these tests, Holden said. Gates on those crossings will not be installed until October.

The trains will start out moving slowly and will gradually increase to speeds of 55 mph.

Holden said testing will not commence until 6 p.m. each day because contractors need access to the track during the day to finish their work on the electrical systems. Testing will end by about midnight, he added.

“Are people going to hear them? Absolutely,” Holden said. “Light rail is much quieter than freight trains. But light rail is not silent like a bicycle.”

The dynamic testing will continue through September.

Once the vehicles check out, Holden said, there will be a “burn-in” process, in which the cars must travel 1,000 miles before they’re ready to carry passengers.

The burn-in will use the entire 7.4-mile line – from Newtown Road, through downtown, to the medical complex – and could begin in October.

7/25/10

LOCAL COUNCIL members are often so transparent, you can see right through them, as if viewing an Xray.

Good luck detecting a spine.

Virginia Beach City Council members are the latest to punt on an issue that should be theirs and theirs alone. A majority now says it favors holding a nonbinding voter referendum on bringing light rail to the city.

The city has to do it, they argue, after voters in a 1999 referendum easily rejected a study and further planning on a light-rail system. Current council members don’t want to usurp the voters’ will, you see.

Never mind that Hampton Roads Transit is spending $6.6 million to study extending light rail from Norfolk to the Oceanfront, will have preliminary costs and ridership figures later this year and plans to complete the study in 2011.

Never mind that public hearings will be held.

Never mind, too, that supporters of light rail are much more organized this time around, and that The Tide should be up and running in Norfolk by May. That will give folks at the Beach an idea of how the system operates.

So why is a referendum needed, unless it’s a case of CYA?

“The expectation of the public is they’ll be able to give their opinion through a referendum,” especially after the 1999 rejection, Vice Mayor Louis Jones told me.

“I made a comment in a campaign two years ago that I support a referendum,” said Mayor Will Sessoms. “I’ve gained respect because I’ve kept my word.”

Yet Sessoms acknowledged to me that he now thinks he made a mistake in making that pledge.

Wimps.

Yes, I know city councils around the region often vote on contentious issues.

Occasionally, though, they abdicate their role, throwing back to the voters issues that elected leaders should decide.

State lawmakers look for cover, too. That’s what happened a few years ago, when the General Assembly gave Hampton Roads and Northern Virginia the “opportunity” to tax their residents for roads. The scheme would have used unelected regional authorities to levy taxes. The Virginia Supreme Court ruled that switcheroo unconstitutional in 2008.

The court’s smackdown was a moral lesson about buck-passing.

On light rail, Beach council members will have the most information of anyone in the city about the costs, benefits and drawbacks from a system. They’ll have received public comments and e-mails. They won’t need a referendum.

What they need is to find their backbones and make the decision themselves.

5:23 p.m. EDT, July 22, 2010

Two new board members are coming to Hampton Roads Transit on Thursday. Will Moffett, a Hampton City Councilman and Hampton Vice Mayor George Wallace will join the board.

They’ve both served as alternates in the past. Moffett will replace longtime board member Grace Routten, a past chairwoman who was the last citizen-member of the board. The board is now entirely comprised of elected officials. Wallace replaces former Hampton City Councilman Paige V. Washington.

It’s a turn-point for HRT as the transit agency has gained prominence with expanded service and a pricey light-rail project in Norfolk. The board has faced public scrutiny for cost-overruns on the light-rail project and earlier this year it ousted former CEO Michael Townes amidst the controversy.

The cost overruns became a political issue in local elections and several board members were ousted from their elected posts.

On Wednesday Moffett said that he was looking forward to exploring the transit needs of Hampton and the rest of the Peninsula. “I’m too new on board to have made any type of assessment,” he said. “This area has grown over the last 20 or 30 years,” Moffett said.

“Transit’s something we’ve to got to work to ensure that it’s accessible and convenient for those that need it.”

Moffett also said that the board needed to work efficiently to change public perception of HRT. “I’m hoping that we can do our share to get our arms around it,” Moffett said. “This is a huge challenge given some of the things that have occurred in the recent past.”

HRT spokesman Tom Holden said the new board additions is reflective of new era at HRT. “There is a lot of change underway at HRT. There is considerable change internally. The organization is getting rid of old ways,” Holden said. “The board is just one expression of that.”

The board of Hampton Roads Transit is made up of two representatives sent from each city in Hampton Roads. While it is not a requirement, the board members are generally elected officials.

CHESAPEAKE

A railroad consultant predicts that high-speed trains between Hampton Roads and Washington would not only be popular, but also highly profitable – operating at surpluses of up to $1 billion a year.

Local transportation officials, however, are highly skeptical.

Alex Metcalf, president of Transportation Economics & Management Systems Inc., said the preliminary results of his study surprised even him, generating double the ridership that he’d expected.

“Like most people, I’d never heard of the Hampton Roads -Washington rail corridor – it has no profile outside of Virginia,” said Metcalf, whose business is in Frederick, Md. He said his projections show it’s as economically strong as the main rail corridors planned in Florida and Ohio, both of which won millions of dollars in federal stimulus money this year. He said it’s one of the top 200-mile high-speed rail corridors in the country, with the potential for 4 million riders in 2025.

The corridor, with trains running to both South Hampton Roads and the Peninsula, could cost between $3 billion and $6 billion to develop and would generate an operating surplus of $500 million on the Peninsula and nearly $1 billion in South Hampton Roads in 2025.

Those numbers are based on trains running at 150 mph on the Southside and 110 mph on the Peninsula. The trip to Washington would take 2 hours from Norfolk and 2 hours, 22 minutes from Newport News, he said.

Slower trains, at 79 mph, would lose money and higher-speed trains, starting at 90 mph, would yield smaller profits, he concluded.

Metcalf presented his findings Wednesday to the Hampton Roads Transportation Planning Organization, which paid him $167,000 to develop a Preliminary Vision Plan for high-speed rail. The organization is considering extending Metcalf’s contract to more fully develop his findings.

“I see a pot but not the roast,” Del. Glenn Oder of Newport News said, questioning how Metcalf arrived at his findings. “How are we making these quantum leaps without meat on the bones? ”

Del. John Cosgrove of Chesapeake said: “It’s an awfully happy presentation, but a lot of us are thinking how in the world did they come to those conclusions.”

Metcalf’s work is meant to supplement some of the studies the Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation is doing on high-speed rail from Hampton Roads.

“We are very concerned about the assumptions we’re finding in this study,” said Amy Inman, state transit planning manager. She said some of the assumptions are “very aggressive.”

Metcalf said he’s been building high-speed rails for 40 years across the world and he’s confident in his findings. He said he’s developed 150 train forecasts and they’ve been accurate within 20 percent.

“We’d be the first to say, ‘No, guys, don’t waste your time on this,’ ” he said, as he did to officials after studying a Kansas City-to-Denver corridor.

“But this is a very buildable corridor. I’m surprised nobody’s done anything about it in the past, ” he said.

Dwight Farmer, planning organization executive director, said the board will conduct a peer review of Metcalf’s work “with a healthy skeptical eye.”

“There’s a lot of questions about the numbers, the assumptions, the policies,” he said.

Several planning organization board members said they don’t want their skepticism of Metcalf’s findings to be interpreted as opposition to high-speed rail.

“It’s important we support this,” said Portsmouth Councilwoman Elizabeth Psimas. “High-speed rail has garnered more support than any other transportation project in the region.”

Hampton Roads Transit President and CEO Philip Shucet urged the group not to let the long-term prospect of high-speed rail overshadow the more attainable conventional passenger train that the state is working to bring to Norfolk within three years.

That train would be the first passenger service in South Hampton Roads in more than three decades and would connect to Norfolk’s light-rail line at Harbor Park.

NORFOLK, Va. (WAVY) – After months of construction in downtown Norfolk, light rail is coming into focus — as are the latest questions about Hampton Roads Transit’s long-anticipated project.

Major construction wrapped up earlier this month, and testing will begin in the fall. Now the city is counting down to see if the Tide makes its scheduled start date of next May.

“There’s a certain amount of float in every project and one of the things that I’m used to doing in projects like this, you find ways to make up lost time,” said Vice President of Rail Operations Jim Price.

Monday afternoon, Price and Public Outreach Coordinator Tamara Poulson fielded questions from the Downtown Norfolk Civic League. The Tide is already tens of millions of dollars over budget and a year behind schedule, but Price said more delays or cost overruns are unlikely.

“I think our new CEO, Philip Shucet, is very adamant about watching every single cent,” Price said, “watching where it goes.

There is a problem of two faulty rail crossings at Ingleside and Bristol, with a cost of $200,000 to fix. That money came out of HRT’s contingency fund. WAVY.com wanted to know how much of the fund is left for future problems.

“I personally don’t have any knowledge that the current budget is at risk,” Price said.

Light rail testing will begin this fall along with the public safety outreach program.

“We’ll be on the radio. We’ll be on TV. We’ll be anywhere where anyone will listen,” promised Poulson. “We’ll be there.”

Just as HRT wants people to ride the Tide, they also want everyone to buy into the commitment for safety needed for such a large project.

Shucet told the Executive Committee of HRT’s Commission that he is not convinced the organization is currently providing service at peak efficiency. To help achieve that goal, Shucet promised to bring the Commission minimum service performance standards to guide future decisions on routes and services.  Those minimum performance standards will be presented at the August Commission meeting.

Shucet also suggested that a series of fare increase public hearings and meetings – currently set to begin on July 22 – be postponed until some time in 2011.

The Executive Committee agreed and directed Shucet to bring the results of HRT’s efficiency efforts to the full Commission in January 2011.  At that time, the Commission would reconsider whether to proceed with a fare increase.  Should the Commission decide to proceed, new public hearing and meeting dates would be established.

“Before we consider a fare increase, I believe our customers and public are entitled to a more efficient service,” Shucet said.  “While HRT is a relatively low cost provider when compared to its peers, the point is to be the best we can be.”

10:06 p.m. EDT, July 6, 2010

Wanted: Someone to guide the mass transit system in Hampton Roads through the challenges of the next decade, whatever that entails.

Salary: Not as much as the current CEO makes.

Possible candidates: Don’t rule out that CEO, money aside, because he’s earned good reviews.
HRT’s executive committee will meet today in Norfolk to begin discussing a search for a long-term CEO. Current chief executive Philip A. Shucet’s contract expires next year.

“We’re going to be looking for someone to lead us into the next decade hopefully, stick with us for the next 10 to 12 years,” said new HRT Board Chairman Paul R. Riddick, a Norfolk city councilman. ” We’re not looking for the least expensive person, we’re looking for the best possible candidate.”

A national search team will be hired to assist with the efforts.

Riddick said he hoped to have the next CEO at the agency by February 2011 in order to ensure a smooth transition.

Shucet was brought on in an emergency situation after the departure of former HRT CEO Michael S. Townes, who left amidst $100 million in cost overruns on The Tide, a Norfolk light-rail project, the first of its kind in the region.

Shuct had earned stellar reviews while guiding the Virginia Department of Transportation under former Gov. Mark R. Warner, and HRT leaders have said they are pleased with his performance, as he’s helped with cost overruns with The Tide.

Jim Wood, who serves on HRT’s executive committee and is a past chairman, said he would support Shucet for the job he wants it. “I think Philip has done a phenomenal job,” Wood said. “It’s a question of whether he’d like to continue to at the helm of the organization…If so, I would certainly support him.”

Shucet has not publicly signaled if he is interested in the job on a permanent basis, nor has he ruled it out. Riddick said he did not know if Shucet wanted the job permanently.

“My position remains the same,” Shucet said in an e-mail to the Daily Press on Tuesday. “I have a one-year contract that can be extended in 6-month increments. I was brought into HRT to: 1. put sound business practices in place, and 2. to get Norfolk light rail up and running based on a reliable budget and schedule.”

“I’m relentlessly focused on those two missions,” Shucet wrote. “I don’t have any thoughts one way or the other regarding the permanent position.”

However, Shucet current makes $40,000 per month, and the new CEO should not expect that kind of paycheck, according to Riddick.

“I don’t believe the salary will be anywhere near that,” Riddick said, adding that $12,000 of Shucet’s monthly salary is supplied by the city of Norfolk.

HRT’s executive committee is meeting to search for a permanent CEO at HRT.

Current CEO Philip A. Shucet, a former VDOT chief makes $40,000 per month.