Hampton Roads Tide Light Rail thread

[OhioGuy]

Tide Light Rail in Norfolk opened this morning, marking the first light rail service in the state of Virginia. It's taken 3.5 years to construct.



Some images from The Virginia-Pilot on HamptonRoads.com (more can be found at the link, including a video):

[Cirrus]

Photo sets are starting to show up on flickr too.

I hope to head down there to check it out soon. It will have to be either in the next couple of weeks or not until November.

[ssiguy]

Kudos for Norfolk for forging ahead. It is unfortunate that it is starting up with the clouds of cost overuns but $350 million for 11.4km of line is still well below average LRT costs. The stations and line seem attractive and friendly.
I hope it does well which , of course, depends on how convient and reliable it is. Much of that will depend on frequency levels and on most new US LRT systems they tend to be quite poor.
What will the frequency levels be and what is the projected ridership?

[Nexis4Jersey]

Originally Posted by ssiguy

Kudos for Norfolk for forging ahead. It is unfortunate that it is starting up with the clouds of cost overuns but $350 million for 11.4km of line is still well below average LRT costs. The stations and line seem attractive and friendly.
I hope it does well which , of course, depends on how convient and reliable it is. Much of that will depend on frequency levels and on most new US LRT systems they tend to be quite poor.
What will the frequency levels be and what is the projected ridership?

Ridership is supposed to be anywhere between 12-15,000 which would make it one of the lowest used lines in North America.

[Cirrus]

Originally Posted by Nexis4Jersey

Ridership is supposed to be anywhere between 12-15,000 which would make it one of the lowest used lines in North America.

Expected, since it is also one of the shortest.

On a per mile basis it is perfectly respectable.

[M II A II R II K]

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHekGBAJO8k" target="_blank">Video Link




Transit Geeks @ 4:30 AM

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ic-0eyVy8-o" target="_blank">Video Link

[Nexis4Jersey]

Originally Posted by Cirrus

Expected, since it is also one of the shortest.

On a per mile basis it is perfectly respectable.

Whats your opinion on this project ?

[Dr Nevergold]

Here's the real face of transit, just for some humor.


http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6077/...ae67f128_z.jpg
Edited by: Me


Nice work, Norfolk!

[hammersklavier]

Google Maps already has Tide stations up! Very respectable!

[Dr Nevergold]

Love the design, looks very nice. And it doesn't try to do too much, it serves as a local transit option for the urban center.

[ChiSoxRox]

Congrats Norfolk!

I hope to ride on each rail transit system in the country. So far I'm only at the Chicago L, Minneapolis Hiawatha, St Louis Metrolink, and Washington Metro, But I'm glad to see another city join my list.

[Wheelingman04]

Originally Posted by Dralcoffin

Congrats Norfolk!

I hope to ride on each rail transit system in the country. So far I'm only at the Chicago L, Minneapolis Hiawatha, St Louis Metrolink, and Washington Metro, But I'm glad to see another city join my list.

Come to Pittsburgh

[urbanlife]

You know the rail is doing good when you one day start to notice them running double length trains. Great to see this finally up and running, hope the city and region continue to build off of this.

[BrennanW]

Originally Posted by urbanlife

You know the rail is doing good when you one day start to notice them running double length trains. Great to see this finally up and running, hope the city and region continue to build off of this.

HRT has only single-vehicle platforms. The vehicles themselves are double-articulated LRVs which could theoretically run in pairs but that would require extending every station, which the system was not designed for.

I believe HRT only has nine of the vehicles, and from the youtube spot I listened to the other day, a class of just 8 drivers!! I guess they only need two or three trains running at a time for a line that short.

I have high hopes that this shows America how medium sized cities should build rail transit. I'm looking at you, Wichita!

[hammersklavier]

Natural extensions also exist north--to Old Dominion U. and Norfolk Naval Base--and east--to Virginia Beach.

The Hampton Roads MSA is massive. It's got three major urban centers (Norfolk, Newport News, Williamsburg) and like nine large cities. But a huge amount of that agglomeration is classic New South Sunbelt-style sprawl in the swamp.

[202_Cyclist]

The Washington Post has a good photo essay covering the opening of the light rail line.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/...J_gallery.html

[frinkprof]

It's weird. I had just decided to look up the Norfolk light rail project for the first time in forever because I was curious as to what its status was. Lo and behold it opened yesterday and there were some fresh videos and photos of the opening for me to look at.

Congratulations Norfolk and good luck with light rail.

[BrennanW]

Natural extensions also exist north--to Old Dominion U. and Norfolk Naval Base--and east--to Virginia Beach.

The most "natural" extension is to Virginia Beach. That extension, according to gMaps, follows an existing rail right of way. I think the issue is just getting some regional coordination going on. I don't know a whole lot about the different transit agencies there, but providing a full-fledged commuter-light-rail project between two cores (in different municipalities) could be politically difficult, if not a resounding intergovernmental success.

From what I've read, it seems most people there like the idea in general, but complain that it doesn't get them where they want to go, that because this is a very obvious first stage of system built to be extended upon.

[fflint]

I had no idea this would be up and running this early--congratulations are in order!

I hope someday Cirrus will update the US 'transit map' he made a few years ago, so I can keep track of which cities offer which kind of rail service....

[202_Cyclist]

I hope someday Cirrus will update the US 'transit map' he made a few years ago, so I can keep track of which cities offer which kind of rail service....

I also hope that Cirrus posts a photo essay of the Hampton Roads/Norfolk area and the light rail.