Free Ride Friday on The Tide

This Friday at 11am, the City of Norfolk will hold a cerebration in honor of the first birthday of The Tide, the city's light rail system.  As part of the celebration, The Tide will be offering free rides all day.

The Tide launched August 19th, 2011, and is seen as a success so far.  The area's first light rail trains have carried more than 1.6 million passengers in their first 12 months.  The average of more than 5,000 passengers per day is nearly double HRT's estimate of 2,900 per day.

The Tide's success comes despite controversy over its start up.  Construction delays, including one in which flooding washed away part of the track bed, pushed back the train system's launch date by almost a year.  Cost overruns pushed the price tag to $318 million, $100 million over estimate.  Former Hampton Roads Transit chief Michael Townsend was pressured into early retirement because of the delays and cost hikes.

There was also controversy on launch day.  As the first train left the Newtown Road station, a number of protestors, some holding signs reading, "Light Fail," signaled their apparent hope that The Tide would be a flop.

But Hampton Roads residents and visitors seem to like The Tide.  The seven-mile course winds past some of Norfolk's prime attractions, including Harbor Park, MacArthur Center, City Hall and the Norfolk court buildings.  Other attractions, like the Chrysler Museum, Town Pointe Park and Nauticus, are just a few blocks from Tide stops.

In a press release, HRT officials boast about The Tide's safety record, which they say is the best of any start-up light rail system.  There have been a few collisions between trains and cars, but the car drivers were found to be at fault.  HRT aired several public service announcements last year, cautioning pedestrians to be careful near the trains.

The Tide's successful first year is already generating talk of expanding it.  HRT's long term transit study is looking at light rail lines to Naval Station Norfolk, Old Dominion University and the Greenbrier Section of Chesapeake.  Voters in Virginia Beach will consider a non-binding referendum this November on whether the city should pursue light rail.  The ballot measure will read,

" Should the City Council adopt an ordinance approving the use of all reasonable efforts to support the financing and development of The Tide light rail into Virginia Beach?"

Light rail could even cross the water in the future.  HRT's plans would have light rail trains traveling into Hampton and Newport News.  And a spokesperson for Elizabeth River Crossings, the company that will build and manage the new Midtown Tunnel, has told me that one lane of the new tunnel could accommodate a train line connecting Norfolk to Portsmouth.  The Tide's western terminus is about a mile from the entrance of the Midtown Tunnel

The anniversary celebration for The Tide will happen at 11am at the MacArthur Square stop.

On the web:
www.GoHRT.com