Look again, it is hardly business as usual

By GRACE G. ROUTTEN

Grace G. Routten of Hampton is chair of the Transportation District Commission of Hampton Roads, the policy board of Hampton Roads Transit.

AS CHAIR of the Transportation District Commission of Hampton Roads, the governing board of Hampton Roads Transit, I keep a low profile that suits me well.

But when Virginia Beach Mayor Will Sessoms announced that his city had reached a deal with Norfolk Southern Corp. to purchase property that could one day extend light rail to the Oceanfront, my heart swelled.

Remember that Oldsmobile commercial? The new models, it boasted, were not your father’s Olds. The same can be said for HRT.

For many, HRT has a long history. Some know it as the agency that provides bus service, but wonder why those buses do not run with greater regularity. They know it as an agency that wants to provide service to reluctant suburban commuters; many may not know that the morning and evening buses on some city routes are packed.

Why don’t our buses run as often as they should? Money. Some buses are not filled because they don’t run often enough. If the bus comes once an hour, who will rely on it? If you’re five minutes late, it’s another hour wait. Increase the frequency and, we believe, people will rely on buses in ways they do not today.

Passenger surveys show that 59 percent of HRT’s customers take the bus to work every day — about 15 million last year alone. That’s incredible. And some 73 percent of our riders take the bus five days a week.

But it’s not just work. People use the region’s transit network to shop, go to school and play. I like to think that HRT carries people along in life.

Why bring this up? Because debate is accelerating on what HRT means to Hampton Roads, and that debate is no clearer than in Virginia Beach, which has just committed $10 million to a right of way that holds great promise for transit services.

Imagine. The city that once said “no way” to light rail, that passed a resolution prohibiting talk of it, has now committed serious money to exploring what’s possible for mass transit.

Did you know that Norfolk is the smallest city in the United States to qualify for federal funding for light rail? That kind of leadership has prompted Virginia Beach to reconsider. Today, talk of expanding The Tide is commonplace, when, only a few years ago, the refrain mostly was how it would never happen.

And it’s not just the coming train service that is redefining the agency.

HRT was the first transit agency in Virginia to partner with Google to help customers plot trips with Google Trip Planner. It’s a service that is being copied all over the state.

Years ago, worried executives at HRT were at pains to explain an antiquated finance department plagued by incompatible computer and accounting systems that led to an embarrassing inability to produce accurate reports. That, too, has changed. HRT can take pride in four successive independent audits that have given the agency a clean slate.

Unlike other regional agencies, HRT does not carry significant debt. In fact, it runs a slight margin.

Even the cost of bus service per hour is among the lowest of HRT’s 30 peer agencies — 29th, at $62.64. By comparison, Louisville’s is $71.62;

Cincinnati’s, $73.75. Similar savings are found in comparing administrative cost per vehicle revenue hour. AT HRT, it is $13.29. It is $16.94 in Jacksonville, Fla., and $16.22 in Albany, N.Y .

And those reluctant suburbanites? HRT’s commuter express bus service, The Max, recorded more than 25,000 riders in January alone.

No, this is not the same HRT you may think you know.