Light-rail trains will be in motion, but it’s too early to hop aboard

By Debbie Messina
The Virginian-Pilot
© July 25, 2010

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.