Light Rail Education: Expert Says Residents Need to Know More
By Debbie Messina
The Virginian-Pilot
A leader in the national transit industry toured the construction of Norfolk’s light-rail line last week and encouraged a local transit advocacy group to inform residents about the benefits of trains and buses.
Education is key to growing new transit systems, Bill Millar, president of the American Public Transportation Association said at a gathering Monday evening at the SpringHill Suites on Newtown Road.
He encouraged members of the Hampton Roads Public Transportation Alliance to lead the way. “People don’t want to come up with their hard earned money to pay for something they don’t understand,” Millar said.
Millar compared Norfolk’s $288 million, 7.4-mile starter light-rail system to others new lines that have been built across the country. Denver launched light rail with only a 5-mile segment and over the past 15 years has grown it to four lines extending 35 miles.
“I suspect that will happen here,” Millar said. “You need to look at the first 7½ miles as a proof of purchase.”
He added that it’s not always easy. Phoenix opened its first light-rail line a year ago and is already carrying nearly double its projected ridership, Millar said. But first, voters rejected two referendums seeking to raise taxes to help pay for it. A third ballot measure passed.
Norfolk’s light-rail line is to open in October 2010. Studies are under way for extending the line to the Norfolk Naval Station and into Virginia Beach.
Virginia Beach voters rejected a referendum in 1999 that would have cleared the way for light rail in that city. There’s a citizens’ movement in Virginia Beach now to put the question before voters again in 2010.