Interactive: Animated map of Norfolk's light rail

vb cant handle what they have now!I hope this lightrail is a joke?Spend it if you have it VB!

I want to Ride the Tide to the airport, ohhhh it doesn't go there.
I want to Ride the Tide to the beach, ohhhh it doesn't go there.
I want to Ride the Tide down Granby Street, ohhhh it doesn't go there.
I want to Ride the Tide to ODU, ohhhh it doesn't go there.
I want to Ride the Tide to the Navy base, ohhhh it doesn't go there.

Maybe we could nick-name it, "OHHHH It Doesn't Go There"

What we need is light rail that can shuttle folks back and forth to the Naval Base...who wants folks being shuttled from Norfolk to the Beach Area? Not me, for sure. It's not a wonder that Hampton Roads is way down on the totem pole when people think of where to retire...

I agree with several comments made on the subject of the rail system. Several places I've been to don't have a carpool lane on their bussiest roadways. My suggestion is simple. Take away the carpool routes from the Beach and run it to down town norfolk, branch off headed towards the Naval base. These are the bussiest roadways this area has. There are others that are in high competition to being the bussiest. However, my concern is the security on this rail system going in any direction once active to protect the investment of all who utilize it and eventually others that have to pay the high tax increase to pay for it.

The whole idea is to redeuce the ammount of trafic on I64 during peak hours so lets NOT build the light rail where the trafic is going because that would make WAY too much sense. The first section of light rail should have run from the Naval Base area to Newtown Raod or some place close to Virginia Beach. This would reduce alot of trafic, increase ridership, and revenues. Also this would not be as complicated as crossing the water to Hampton would be, which is the second most heavly traveld route. Instead I can now go to Harbor Park, exactly how this will help me on a daily basis I can not fathom. Congratulations Norfolk this is a well spent $232 million.

If I can get in and out of harbor park without paying the $5 parking fee and avoiding the traffic, I'll definitely be on the light rail on game nights!

Chesapeake has jumped on the bandwagon for light rail. Every city in the 757 has, except Suffolk. If you guys haven't looked at the Transit Vision Plan you should. By 2035 every city in Hampton Roads will have light rail or commuter rail. Basically light rail will go from ODU to NOB to EVMS to VBTC to the oceanfront and all the way across the bay to Newport News. Commuter rail (heavier rail used to commute people from the suburbs like suffolk and N.C. to the urbanities like Norfolk and VBTC) will extend from Harbor Park through Chesapeake down to N.C. and from Harbor Park to Suffolk all the way to RIchmond and where the light rail ends in newport news it will switch to Commuter Rail and travel all the way up to Busch Gardens. There will be BRT on the VB Oceanfront and a ferry from Downtown Norfolk to the peninsula.

I only wish that Chesapeake would get on the bandwagon with Light Rail. How nice it would be to be able to ride from Great Bridge to Harbor Park and enjoy the ballgames without the hassel of parking and traffic. Heck, I could even have a couple of extra beers with someone else doing the driving! Lets face it, this is the transportation of the future with the high price of gas and automobiles. The roads are terrible around here, so why not sit back and enjoy the ride. Afterall, who doesn't like riding a train?

For everyone who just wants to complain, why don't you just think long term for once? The US government does not do much if any really to curb our nations CO2 emissions, which in turn makes the States govern what they feel is necessary. Norfolk is doing a good thing here, it will better the city plus long term help slow CO2 emissions. I know people are way opposed for the VB extension light rail but think long term. Let the foundation be set first then lets start to branch off afterward, so please stop thinking one track minded here.

Come on people, all you keep saying is how they need to extend the light rail here and extend it there but my word, just imagine how much that would cost. Norfolk is doing the right thing by STARTING the light rail in the heart of Norfolk, then I would assume in the future the light rail would extend to the naval base, odu, and so forth. Just give them time, money doesn't grow on trees and creating the rails for these trains don't happen over night. Plus all of hampton roads is too spaced out, like VA Beach; you have Town Center and the oceanfront, if va beach did a rail i'm sure they would do the same thing as norfolk but probably start it down at the ocean front then start expanding further out.

It’s a good start for the Light rail to commute from Norfolk Naval Base to Newton Rd but in order eliminate traffic and decrease the risk of road accidents; the rail has to go further. We also have to make the light rail military friendly. By doing that we should increase the route further west into Portsmouth. The best way to do that is by starting a line around the Berkley Bridge, then Parallel to Interstate 464heading south bound, next westbound on Pondexter St through the new Jordan bridge area, and finally making the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard area the final destination. With this plan the BAE Systems and Portsmouth Naval Shipyard workers will have an easier way to get to work while also decreasing traffic during the morning and afternoon rush hours. There is also train track that has not been used for years along the crucial route so that should be helpful. Maybe sometime down the road the Light Rail should also extent to the Peninsula and link up to the Amtrak station. This idea will arouse lots of tourist especially from the north and Central part of the country. It may also be a smart idea to connect the Light Rail to the Norfolk and Newport News International airports. T

It would sure be nice if pilot/hamptonroads.com web programmers could FIX THIS WEBSITE so that all of it works with Firefox. You guys on Microsoft payroll over there???

!

It would be nice if there could be a direct shuttle service from the Oceanfront to the Newtown Road station (stopping at Lynnhaven Mall and VB Town Center) and another one at the Medical Center station going to the Naval Base and stopping at ODU. Existing bus routes (20, 2) servicing those areas take waaay too long and stop too many places, and MAX bus service doesn't even stop at Town Center or ODU (it should, lots of free parking available at town center). Perhaps these shuttle services can be a "band-aid" to the solution until the light rail line (which is INTENDED to only be a starter line) can be extended in both those directions.

Should have just run it right down VA Beach Blvd. Tap into all the parking at Janif, Mili Circle, VB Town Center, Convention Center, etc etc. Other end to ODU and on to the navel base. So little room in Ghent, but might be able to run it down one of those small side streets close to Hampton Blvd.

I guess since Norfolk will be losing a carrier there is no need to provide transportation to NOB. One would think getting thousands of cars off the road (base traffic) would solve many of the traffic problems in Tidewater.

The truth is that maglev is POTENTIALLY the LEAST expensive transit system to build and operate. You only need one six foot diameter easement every 150 feet. Everything else is in the air. The easiest place to run monorails is down the middle of existing streets.

The future of public transportation will not be "mass" transit. Instead there will be a maglev system of small vehicles that hold 4 to 6 passengers. You go to a station, (of which there can be many), where there will be "cars" waiting. You tell it where you want to go and the "car" takes off. Once up to speed the car will travel at speeds exceeding 100 miles per hour. Each station will be off of the high-speed line, so you will exit the 100 Mph track, decelerate and stop in the station where you disembark at your destination.

You travel at top speed between your origin and destination without having to stop at any stations in-between. Imagine being able to go from the oceanfront to waterside in 10 minutes. These are not mass transit, (shared), vehicles so they don't have to stop at every stop which means you can put in as many stops as you want.

Also, there would be no need to transfer from one "line

to this looming financial disaster. Using HRT's inflated passenger estimates above, 1 659 840 passengers will ride the trolley each year. If HRT can get $5 per ride (unlikely), it will generate only $8.4 million per year- not enough to cover operating costs, let alone capital costs which will far exceed the $232 MM budgeted. I suspect that far fewer people will ride this foolish waste of resources.

I hope that the Beach Council is wise enough to resist the pressure to extend this Tracked Titanic. Haven't we learned from Nauticus, the Soccerplex etc etc etc? This won't be a monkey on the backs of the taxpayers, it will be King Kong.

The reason it was not extended first out to ODU and NOB is because no extinct lines exist that go out that way, the cost would be so much more to start with that. The starter line goes through downtown and out to the VB line. This was chosen because an old Norfolk Southern line already exist that simply needs to be revamped to allow for light rail, this means very little eminent domain compared to carving a new line through the urban jungle. Also a maglev is the most expensive form of rail both to construct and to operate. It would be nice, but very unpractical. If a rail is ever taken out to NOB i'd imagine the line would mirror a line already active...one that takes coal from the ports to beside harbor park. The hardest rail to build would be one out to ODU, possibly a rail could go to lamberts point then branch off down powhatan to ODU.

As usual, Virginia Beach city council is sitting on their hands and doing nothing. This system is the future but city council would rather wait on "something." VOTE THE BUMS OUT and elect someone who is not afraid to move forward.