XML FeedsVirginia Beach – Light Rail
By Wally on Mar 15, 2010 | In Politics, Va Beach, Light Rail Crime | 1 feedback »
What do light rail and health-care reform have in common?
City Council candidates duck the light rail issue.
Ask the typical city council candidate, up for re-election this fall, where they stand on light rail you’ll get, “I want to see the study first”
Follow up:
The study they are alluding to is a subsequent environmental impact statement being prepared as required by the Federal Transportation Administration new starts program. This study will be use by the Feds to ascertain the levels of priority and funding the Virginia Beach light rail project warrants.
Unfortunately, when you follow-up your initial question with, “At what expected result of the study, threshold values, would you view the project as favorable or unfavorable?”, you will receive a blank stare. If you ask about a referendum, there will be a rhetorical, double speak answer that means nothing.
My friends, the handwriting is on the wall. The light rail citizen committees are stacked, the Hampton Roads transportation czar is a $40,000 dollar a month consultant with the same inept staff, and the study will be as erroneous as the under-estimated Norfolk project study.
What do light rail and health-care reform have in common? You are going to get whether you want it or not!
1 comment
First of all, your questions assume that the SDEIS will come back favorable on Virginia Beach LRT. If it doesn't, the project will be mothballed like the fixed-guideway transit project in Newport News. After all, it would be a waste to continue if it can't qualify for Federal funding.
As for your claim of HRT having "the same inept staff", a few things. First, Norfolk's Starter Line has a new Project Manager, Henry Nutbrown. Nutbrown has LRT construction expierience from Pittsburgh. Second, in my dealings the past few years with HRT management, I've found most competent if not better. It usually was the case that they were getting bad or not enough info from the field, or Townes had their hands tied. Third, the only HRT department I've found overall "inept" is Customer Service.
As for us getting LRT "whether you want it or not", I'm waiting for the first critic to articulate a realistic and constructive vision for where Virginia Beach would go with transportation (especially mass transit) and land use if we don't pursue LRT. Until such a plan exists, moving forward is the only rational course.
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