The Virginian-Pilot
©
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.
Debbie Messina, (757) 446-2588, debbie.messina@pilotonline.com
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$721.00 per INCH of track. This statistic says it all.
All the Boo Birds know that this negative income producing fiasco, aka choo choo, will be a tax drain on the budget. It has been a failure from day one. The cost is a mere $721.00 per INCH of track. This statistic says it all.
The Tital Wave of new taxes
Local governments struggle with bloated budgets that are millions short - sure, they raided "rainey day funds" and moved millions tucked away into special "accounts" (such as "open space" acquistion) to try to fill in HUGE budget gaps this past year. Why? Because an election is coming. But AFTER the election? TAX HIKES and a long list of FEE INCREASES are coming. Meanwhile, regional, state, and federal governments are plotting a whole host of new TOLLS. So, here we find the DEVELOPERS standing up yet another "organization" to push light rail? In Norfolk the cost of 7.4 miles of light rail will add between $6M to $12M each year to the city budget. In Virignia Beach, the cost of a 10.6 mile light rail line and its "feeder buses" will add between $8M to $12M every year - to a budget that is already projected to be around $100M short every year - for the next 5 years. Folks, we cannot AFFORD the boondoggle for the benefit of Deevelopers, bankers, and law firms - for the benefit of the wealthy business owners of the CBDA in Town Center. For the benefit of those who are NOT the people who will PAY for light rail.
Actually you can't afford not to have light rail
Seeing as how on average every time someone steps on a bus in this country it costs $3.30 and every time someone steps on a light rail train it costs $2.80 for a ride.
So unless you want to actually spend more of your tax dollars moving people around town, you should be embracing light rail.
HRT is above average
in mismanagement of taxpayer funds and cost overruns. They are above the norm for misallocated and missing fare boxes. They are way above average in management costs. The overall costs per average for liht rail will be way more than what it costs to have EMPTY buses blocking the right lanes of our local roads. HRT : Financial Black Hole
Those buses aren't empty
Those so called "empty buses" moved an average of 47,000 people each weekday in the first quarter of this year.
And mismanagement or not, no matter how you slice it, rail is almost always cheaper than a bus simply because it requires far fewer employees to move many more people. And employee costs are always one of the bigger costs of any transit system.
With a service area
spread from Suffolk to Newport News, the average ridership in Virginia Beach is far from 47,000 a day. With a price tag aproaching a billion dollars, light rail is not the answer.
Take it up with the National Transit Database
Since the NTD, which is the official source for all transit figures, shows that the average daily ridership is over 40,000 people.
As for the billion spent on light rail, that's a 40 year investment. The actual operating costs for light rail are with rare exceptions, always cheaper than providing the service by using buses.
Again, in this country on average it costs 60 cents to move 1 person 1 mile on a light rail train. To do the same job with a bus costs 80 cents. And that amount doesn't include fixing the damage that all those buses cause to our roads. That expense falls squarely on the taxpayer.
So unless you enjoy paying more in taxes to move people on a bus, maybe it's time to start embracing light rail.
my own eyes
2 months ago I was laughing at the empty light rail parking lots and rail cars in San Jose, while we were all sitting in traffic during weekday rush hour. Nobody wants to use it.
Policy of intentional disinformation
I guess we have matured as a region when we start getting the posts putting forth intentional disinformation about light rail. Fact is, light rail has been very successful in cities and counties around this country, not only providing an option in congested corridors, but stimulating billions of dollars in commercial real estate development around the stations, providing work not only in construction, but in the businesses that locate around the stops as well. So as this discussion continues on these pages, look for the new posters with so called factual information that upon reflection and review, turns out to be opinion, not fact. This extension of light rail through Virginia Beach will be one of the least expensive per mile, and will help us keep the military presence in Hampton Roads. We must move forward.
So are you suggesting that
So are you suggesting that YOU are the only one who knows facts about light rail Mike? Sure.. we get it. A mismanaged project with cost over-runs of over $100 million dollars; a board of directors with the spine of a rubberband that allowed the CEO in charge of the mismanagement and hiding facts about the cost over-runs to shake them down to the tune of $300K; still no word or criminal investigation on what happened to 80K stolen from the collection boxes. The least expensive per mile? Compared to where? Japan? Iceland maybe? All in the public interest right Mike? Naaaahh, no one knows any facts Mike. We're just ostriches with our head in the sand. We're supposed to be following the Runnymeade road and be off to see the Wizard of Tide.