VIRGINIA’S FIRST LIGHT RAIL LINE Roll, Tide!
Norfolk Light Rail S
BY MICHAEL T. BURKHART/PHOTOS BY THE AUTHOR
EVERAL AMERICAN CITIES started small when it comes to light rail — including Austin, Char- lotte and Houston – with plans for eventual expansion. In 2011, another “starter system” began operations, this time in Norfolk, Va. Hampton Roads Transit’s light rail is a 7.4-mile system known locally as “The Tide” and serves 11 stations in Norfolk; it’s the first light rail line in Virginia. HRT also operates bus routes and three passenger ferries. Norfolk is still best known for its shipbuilding and gritty docks, but it also has a thriv- ing city center with theater, shopping and museums, all served by light rail.
40 DECEMBER 2013 •
RAILFAN.COM
Plans for light rail in the Hampton Roads area date to a failed 1999 refer- endum in Virginia Beach. After that, Norfolk decided to proceed on its own. By 2006, federal funds were secured and final design and construction be- gan on the $318 million project. Service began on August 19, 2011, more than a year behind schedule. The Tide runs seven days a week, with rush hour weekday service on ten minute headways and 15 minute head- ways much of the day. On Saturdays, service runs between 9:00 a.m. and midnight and on Sundays between 11:00 a.m. and 9:00 p.m. The stations have a distinct Virginia feel, with taste-
ful white columns and glass partitions. In its first year The Tide carried about 1.5 million paid riders, according to HRT. The fleet consists of nine Siemens-
built S70 light rail vehicles (similar to those operating in Charlotte, Houston and Salt Lake City). The shop and lay- over yard is located just east of the Nor- folk State University station at East Brambleton Avenue and I-264. From the western end at Eastern Virginia Medical Center, the line fol- lows Brambleton Avenue and crosses an inlet on the Elizabeth River. On Monticello Avenue in the heart of Nor- folk, The Tide serves The NorVa the- ater, built in 1917 as a vaudeville ven-
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