On beach light rail, time for leadership

Sometime next year, Norfolk will open a light rail line transporting people between downtown and Newtown Road. The train, one of 35 light rail systems in the country, will stop at the border of Virginia Beach because 10 years ago, Beach officials couldn't find the political will to pursue a line of their own.

Now, as negotiations continue over purchasing an east-west rail corridor from Newtown to near the Oceanfront, the Virginia Beach City Council is talking about putting the question of light rail on the ballot again. But just as in 1999, when a similar referendum failed, the city lacks specifics on what light rail could do to and for Virginia Beach and the region.

A $2 million environmental impact statement, due in 2010, will provide estimates on how much extending a rail line would cost, how many passengers would ride it and the effect it would have on neighborhoods.

The arguments for light rail are multilayered, starting with the longstanding need to provide a way, besides more crowded asphalt, of getting around the region. It's a key part, but just one part, of a comprehensive transportation strategy, and light rail can't work for everyone.

But it's a start toward providing viable alternatives to the automobile.

Charlotte, home to 700,000 people and thousands of gridlocked streets, christened its light rail system in the fall. Already, the train has many more riders than transportation leaders predicted, suburbs are talking about extending the line, and development around the stops is sprucing up the city.

An extension of a subway line completely transformed the city of Arlington, turning a lackluster D.C. suburb into one of the fastest-growing and wealthiest by converting the blocks around Metro stops into vital urban neighborhoods.

But Virginia Beach must decide for itself whether light rail is part of its future.

And that decision rests with the City Council, five of whom were just elected in November with promises to work to resolve the city's transportation problems. Council members need more information about light rail; then they need to put aside allegiances to various special interests and make a decision.

Ten years ago, the council abdicated its responsibility, punting the issue to voters with no recommendations and too little information. Eight of 11 members declined even to take a position.

Then-Vice Mayor Will Sessoms and Councilwoman Barbara Henley said they supported light rail but did not actively campaign for it. Not surprisingly, in the absence of information and leadership, voters rejected it. The 1999 referendum became an excuse to delay action on the Norfolk Southern line, a critical corridor for the city's future.

Now the issue is in the forefront again, a much more expensive proposition because the cost of the land and construction have increased dramatically. Another referendum could delay the decision again, which would mean further increases in the costs of both transit and road-building.

Norfolk already has done the hard work. Despite the change orders and delays in building the 7.4-mile starter line, people soon will have an alternative to the headaches of driving and parking downtown. City leaders will have done it without asking voters' permission. They built the Scope, MacArthur Center and Harbor Park without putting any of them on the ballot.

Voters don't decide which highways get built, whether the government should mail taxpayers stimulus checks or send troops to the Middle East. They elect representatives to make those decisions.

If Virginia Beach's leaders support moving forward with light rail, they must publicly make the case for it, one strong enough to sway the city's voters. They could start with the fact that light rail may be more expensive to build than new lanes of highway, but it's cheaper to operate. And it's less expensive than buying and running buses.

If city leaders don't want to make that argument and don't want to support light rail, they need to find other solutions to the city's traffic problems and convince citizens of the urgency of solving them. Either way, though, voters didn't elect the City Council to kick these decisions back to them; they elected leaders to lead.