Extortion in Virginia

This is rich. Apparently Norfolk State University signed a deal a few years ago that would allow light rail to run through campus. A few years later new leadership has moved into the presidents mansion on campus and apparently doesn't like the idea. Instead of going with the original agreement, the University is resorting to extortion.

Norfolk State University wants the city to purchase its president’s home and build a parking deck near campus. The requests are part of a wish list submitted to the city in a letter dated March 26. They are some of the most expensive ideas offered by NSU to resolve an impasse with the city and Hampton Roads Transit over the light rail line under construction next to the campus. No price tags are available for the university’s proposals. However, city officials said the items are not in the project’s $232.1 million budget.

But good for the Mayor, he's not buying it.

Norfolk Mayor Paul Fraim said he wouldn’t support the request under any circumstances. “I don’t think we could use public dollars for that purpose,” he said.

It seems recently that there have been a lot of anti-transit campus sentiment. The purple line in Maryland comes to mind, worried about vibrations through campus from light rail and most recently the dumbfounding move by the University of Minnesota who didn't get their tunnel through campus due to our favorite cost effectiveness measure. Now they want a rerouting that would kill the line's federal funding. Something tells me that these folks know nothing about the benefits of a line through campus for students. All over the country there are college campuses that thrive on transit connections. Unfortunately these situations above will have to be forced.

Hampton Roads News

After Norfolk got a Full Funding Grant Agreement, Virginia Beach decides that they need to jump on the Light Rail bandwagon. From the Virginian Pilot.

Virginia Beach wants a $15 million grant from the Virginia Department of Transportation to help pay for the rail line that runs between Newtown and Birdneck roads if an agreement to sell it is ever reached.

The track is owned by Norfolk Southern Corp. and is considered the logical extension of Norfolk’s light rail project, which began construction this month with utility work at Harbor Park.

Catching the Wave, Which is Coming with 'The Tide'

It looks like Norfolk is going to be the next light rail project to get funding by the new starts program. They've fought really hard to get this project and after fighting with the FTA they are finally getting their day. The project is going to cost $33 million per mile which is rather low for recent light rail projects but it seems to operate more like a streetcar and has taken significant steps to keep costs low including not building an extensive signaling system and building on a former freight rail right of way. They are also using the S70 Avanto LRVs from Siemens, the same ones that Houston, Charlotte and San Diego have.

Below is some information from the local paper, the Virginian Pilot:

As long as no objections are raised by Congress before the end of the month, light-rail plans and financing packages will be finalized at a ceremony planned for that date.

Construction would begin in mid- to late November, and the trains would begin carrying passengers in early 2010.

The 7.4-mile line would run from the Eastern Virginia Medical Center through downtown and along a rail corridor parallel to Interstate 264 to Newtown Road at the Virginia Beach city line. It would have 11 stations and carry up to 12,000 passengers a day. A revised bus network would feed into the rail line.

Here are more new starts stats on the line. Also, Hampton Roads Transit has a page devoted to the line with a nifty video. They've already named the line as well. 'The Tide'