The Tide needed a ‘miracle’ to get started 10 years ago. What does its future hold?

Ten years ago, people gathered by the thousands in Norfolk to see the much-hyped unveiling of The Tide, the city’s new light rail line.

Against a backdrop of politicians’ cheers and protesters’ shouts, they were eager to ride on that hot August weekend, and many would follow. The Tide has since recorded more than 13 million boardings.

“Light rail is not about today,” then-Virginia Beach Mayor Will Sessoms said, alluding to a vision that The Tide’s reach would eventually grow and better connect Hampton Roads. “It’s about the future. I just pray this momentum continues.”

A decade later, it’s not clear whether that vision has materialized or when it could become a reality.

In the beginning, the plan was to expand its tracks to the Beach. But to the surprise of some supporters, The Tide never made it there because Beach residents voted against an extension — something Virginia’s former transportation secretary described as the biggest disappointment in his four-year tenure.

“It was meant to connect the region,” Aubrey Layne said. “So I don’t believe we’ve gotten the benefits of what could happen from it.”

[ The Tide turns 10: A timeline of the light rail’s highs and lows ]

Still, The Tide’s presence has spurred commercial and residential development along its tracks and provides a safe, clean, reliable way to get around downtown Norfolk. Today, it gets people to and from the city’s massive hospital complex as well as minor league baseball games at Harbor Park. Eventually, it will connect them to a nearby casino.

“That’s a measurement of success for this project that people often overlook,” said Ray Amoruso, chief planning and development officer at Hampton Roads Transit, the agency that runs The Tide. “They get hooked up with numbers and forget how the fabric of the city changed, and light rail is a part of that.”

Ridership on The Tide has remained stagnant at about 1.3 million passenger trips per year. Studies of extensions to Naval Station Norfolk, the region’s largest employer, and past the airport or a hub like Old Dominion University, have so far found those plans to be too expensive and not able to compete well enough for federal dollars.

“It needs to go where people want it to go and that has been the problem all along,” said Virginia Beach councilman Jim Wood, a former Hampton Roads Transit board member who worked on light rail for more than a decade before the 2016 referendum.

But there could still be more in The Tide’s future. HRT officials are studying an extension to new development in Norfolk. They also envision a connection to a rapid bus line that will link it to the city’s Navy base. And they’re trying to boost the region’s public bus system, which could bring more riders closer to The Tide.

___

Rejected by the Beach

The Tide was designed to eventually connect to Naval Station Norfolk and the Oceanfront. It was supposed to link the densely populated, heavily African American city of Norfolk with the sprawling, mostly white suburb of Virginia Beach.

Its creators didn’t intend for its path to stay as short as 7.4 miles, and when Virginia Beach residents rejected the expansion plan, they shot down a chance that some like Layne said would have helped the light rail reach its full potential in a community of 1.7 million that relies mostly on cars to get around.

Layne, Virginia’s transportation secretary from 2014 to 2018, said The Tide was supposed to encourage the region to think differently about how to get around.

“You had a chance of changing behavior and how people commuted,” Layne said in an interview this month.

But it has been difficult to get people in Hampton Roads to stop relying on cars partly because of Virginia’s abundant interstate system, he said. In this region, the share of people driving cars to those using public transit is 99% to 1%.

“The referendum failure in Virginia Beach really hurt what I thought would have been not only the success of the light rail, but the fortunes of the community here,” said Layne, who then became the state’s Secretary of Finance before taking a job at Sentara as a senior vice president and the hospital system’s chief of staff.

After the Virginia Beach vote, HRT studied two routes to extend the line up north to Naval Station Norfolk. Both studies proved the projects had too many hurdles and, with price tags of around $1 billion, were too costly. By 2018, HRT said it wouldn’t be building on the west side of Norfolk. HRT reached similar conclusions about the east side, determining the extensions wouldn’t compete well in a ranking system for the federal funding required to build.

___

Eyes on Military Circle

In the past few months, HRT has been studying a short 2.2-mile extension to Military Circle. That smaller project scored well to compete for money from the Federal Transit Administration. The segment would eventually connect to a mass transit line up to the Navy base, but it’s not yet clear how long that will take.

The 2.2-mile light rail extension would tie in with the redevelopment of Military Circle mall, which Norfolk wants to turn into a mixed-use community. That redevelopment could include hotels, parks, offices and possibly a 15,000-seat arena.

[ Related coverage: Norfolk unveils 3 proposals to redevelop mall area ]

The extension could take at least eight years to build if HRT goes after federal dollars, which seems likely. Localities like Norfolk typically don’t have enough money to cover the costs of public transit projects of this scope — many have to prioritize other needs, such as replacing aging schools and addressing persistent flooding.

Norfolk has not yet chosen which developer it intends to go with, but could be negotiating with one of the teams by October, City Manager Chip Filer said. Without knowing the location of where tracks will run, HRT said it doesn’t yet have a full picture of the cost to run the line to Military Circle. To get there, HRT envisions running a rail line up Kempsville Road, under Interstate 264 and then taking a left to go over Interstate 64 on a new bridge. It would stop at Sentara Leigh Hospital before a second stop at Military Circle.

Aside from securing federal money, HRT would have to apply through Virginia’s Smart Scale program, which doles out money to transportation projects that offer the most benefit for the cost.

The light rail expansion would help get people in and out of the new development, said Jared Chalk, Norfolk’s development director. And, Chalk said, it could better connect the west and east sides of the city.

___

A boon to many

Despite The Tide’s limitations, many have come to rely on it.

On weekday mornings and evenings, The Tide’s ridership largely consists of commuters — those who work along the rail’s path, including at Sentara Norfolk General Hospital and throughout the high rise buildings of downtown.

Cynthia Thompson, a patient care specialist at Sentara, has been commuting on The Tide every day for the past two years.

Coming from her home in Virginia Beach each morning, Thompson parks near The Tide stop at Newtown Road, then boards the passenger car for the 7-mile commute. Using The Tide is convenient, she said, and although it sometimes feels as packed as a New York City subway in the evenings, it keeps her from driving through the busy downtown Norfolk traffic at rush hour.

Nancy Tripodi, who works for Towne Benefits, started using The Tide for her commute about two months ago, after her office relocated from Virginia Beach to the Norfolk Southern Tower.

Tripodi said that she’s lived and worked in Virginia Beach since the 1970s, and she was worried about battling traffic if she drove to work in Norfolk each day. Using The Tide lets her destress on the way to and from work — and each time she looks out from the comfort of a Tide car and sees the interstate traffic backed up, she’s grateful that the light rail is an option available to her.

Beyond convenience, advocates say there are other benefits.

In an email, Lisa Guthrie, the executive director of the Virginia Transit Association, said that annually, The Tide reduces Hampton Roads’ fuel consumption by 95,000 gallons, compared to how much fuel would be used in single-occupancy vehicles. Guthrie also said that The Tide eliminates the release of nearly 900 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions per year — roughly equal to the amount of emissions released by 196 single-occupancy vehicles in one year, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

Fixed transit like light rail can also have economic benefits because of its permanence, which is attractive to developers, Guthrie said.

“Not to mention that because The Tide doesn’t take up any ‘lanes of traffic,’ it’s less impacted by normal roadway congestion compared to non-fixed route transit such as a bus,” Guthrie said.

In late 2007, shortly after The Tide cleared its final hurdles at the federal level and before construction on the rail had even begun, three developers told The Virginian-Pilot that The Tide influenced their decisions to develop properties in downtown Norfolk.

One of the projects, the Wells Fargo Center, was developed by S.L. Nusbaum Realty Co. The 22-story tower, which includes office and apartment space, is located on Monticello Avenue — a short walk from The Tide stop on the same street.

“The fact that there will be a light rail stop right out the front door of our project was a key part of why we selected that site,” Thomas G. Johnson III, who is now a senior vice president at S.L. Nusbaum, told The Pilot in 2007.

In a recent phone interview, S.L. Nusbaum’s president, Miles Leon, said the company had already planned to build the center before The Tide was announced, but the light rail was “just a little icing on the cake.”

“We’re really tickled to death and happy to be located next to one of the stops, right across from our building,” Leon said.

Despite the Tide’s line not being extended over the past 10 years, Leon said the light rail has been exactly what the company expected it would be. He said that many people who live and work in the building use the Tide to commute to and from work.

Still, Leon said that the company was “disappointed” when Virginia Beach voters chose not to extend the rail. He is hopeful they might reconsider it one day.

“Keep in mind, our firm is over 115 years old, so we’re very patient,” Leon said. “This is a starter rail, so we knew it would take a number of years for the benefits and the funding and so on. These things take a long time.”

As The Tide enters its next decade, it could see more development along its path, according to Norfolk’s vision for growth and development in and around downtown.

“The Tide serves as the framework for future development of the southside of the Hampton Roads region,” Guthrie said. “Businesses and homeowners want assurance that they are investing in a location where there will be sound infrastructure to support their future needs.”

But unless the line extends or expands, The Tide could be limited to its role as a nice addition for development, rather than the primary draw.

In Norfolk’s growth and development plan, the city points to Fort Norfolk as an area that could experience increased development.

The Breeden Co., a Virginia Beach-based development group, has started construction on the Lofts at Front Street, a 254-unit apartment building on the Elizabeth River.

The apartments will be walking distance to The Tide stop at Eastern Virginia Medical School. But Tim Faulkner, chief operating officer with Breeden said that, at its current state, the light rail is only an “ancillary component” to the development.

“At the maturity of the light rail, it is an enhancement to the area,” Faulkner said. “The real immediate attraction to that area is the walkability and the connectivity to the medical campus.”

Because The Tide hasn’t expanded to other parts of Norfolk and Hampton Roads, Faulkner said, the rail is lacking the connectivity it needs to make it a focal point for development throughout Hampton Roads.

___

More buses for better mobility

Besides expanding the Tide’s rail line, HRT wants to improve its bus system. The General Assembly passed a bill last year that for the first time provides dedicated funding for HRT. Prior to the bill, HRT negotiated contracts with each of the six localities it serves for funding. That model led to inconsistent bus service and wait times of sometimes an hour.

HRT plans to use the dedicated state funds — about $31 million each year — to improve the frequency of 13 “backbone” routes across the region, starting next year with Hampton and Newport News.

“When you look at effective transit systems around the country, the backbone system is always the bus,” said William Harrell, HRT’s president and CEO. “If you have a viable bus system, you’re going to have a strong transit system.”

Most of the buses that run on those 13 routes have 30-minute wait times between each bus, but the cities in the region can’t afford to pay for more frequent runs, Amoruso said.

“The General Assembly for the first time unshackled our hands a little bit,” Amoruso said.

For the first time since 2002, the agency is running a “high capacity transit” study for the city of Chesapeake as the city tries to find ways to relieve traffic congestion in the growing Greenbrier area and its Summit Pointe development near Dollar Tree’s headquarters. Running a mass transit line — like bus rapid transit — from Greenbrier to the base would make sense.

Bus rapid transit lines would complement The Tide well because they are designed to mimic light rail by using dedicated lanes for buses to get around traffic as well as give them priority at intersections when possible. They are also cheaper to build.

A more robust bus system could lure more riders who use public transit by choice versus only those who depend on it, Harrell said. With more people using public transit, the number of people riding The Tide would also go up, Harrell said.

___

The Tide’s future

Around the time it was built, some perceived The Tide as a “debacle of epic proportions.” It’s a bad deal for taxpayers, David Donis, chairman of the Hampton Roads Tea Party, told The Pilot in August 2011. Years later, an anti-light rail group said an extension to Virginia Beach wouldn’t benefit anyone but the developers. To others, the project was a decades-long dream finally realized. W. Randy Wright, a longtime former councilman known as the father of light rail in Norfolk, said it took a “miracle” to become Virginia’s first such public transit line.

A lot of technical work still needs to happen to extend and improve The Tide, and its future growth depends largely on political will.

In Virginia Beach, elected officials say there isn’t much appetite lately to extend the line across the city’s border with Norfolk. Beach Mayor Bobby Dyer, said it’s too expensive, too dated and it doesn’t solve transportation problems in the sprawling city.

“We need a system due to the size of Virginia Beach that goes not only east-west but north-south,” Dyer said.

Beach officials seem to have moved on from the region’s early vision for The Tide. But another use for the right-of-way that was being considered for a light rail line could be on the horizon.

Last month, the city applied for a federal grant to build a multi-use trail in a 10-foot section of the right-of-way that was once being explored for light rail.

“It’s a political vision,” said James Toscano, a former HRT board chair who worked at the agency in a variety of roles including chief communications officer from 2005 to 2011. “Anytime that a community is going to have to commit itself to hundreds of millions of dollars at the expense of something else, it’s going to be political.”

Today's Top Stories

Daily

---

Start your morning in-the-know with the day's top stories.

By submitting your email to receive this newsletter, you agree to our Subscriber Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy.

>

As it stands now, Toscano sees The Tide as more of an amenity than a mass transit solution. Something cool people can take to a baseball game or an event downtown. There are about 4,500 trips on the average weekday, equating to about 2,000 people riding it a day if you assume each is riding round trip. That’s a “drop in the bucket” in a region of 1.7 million people, Toscano said.

But over time, attitudes and political visions change. There’s hope, too, that a massive, $1 trillion U.S. infrastructure bill passed by the Senate could direct funds to transit lines like The Tide.

Asked whether The Tide will ever be anything more than it is today, Toscano suggested looking at other cities with light rails that started off small and were eventually expanded. In Charlotte, for example, a light rail line that began as 9.6 miles in 2007 was doubled in length by 2013. Officials there are now considering adding a new 29-mile line. In Salt Lake City, the city’s first light rail line was built in 1999 and has been extended many times since.

“The 7.4 miles in Norfolk is certainly not the end of the story,” Toscano said.

If that observation holds true, talks of extending The Tide could carry on for decades to come.

Gordon Rago, 757-446-2601, gordon.rago@pilotonline.com

Korie Dean, 757-446-2962, korie.dean@virginiamedia.com