Hampton Roads Transit can’t buy a good story. The Virginian-Pilot reports that the City of Suffolk wants to cut all ties with the regional bus/light rail company.
Suffolk has 4 bus routes, and HRT proposed cutting two of them. Suffolk responded by proposing to privatize.
This came on the heels of an absolute fiscal disaster with Light Rail in Norfolk, where costs ballooned, contracts got shady, and HRT head Michael Townes finally hit the road.
And just this past week, a consultant pegged the cost of extending Light Rail into Virginia Beach at 67 million dollars per mile, almost a 50% increase over what Norfolk’s eventually cost even with all the overruns.
807 million dollars for Virginia Beach light rail? That just put the stake through the heart of light rail, of HRT, of anything concerning mass transit. That cost is just insane!
Of course, only connecting Light Rail to Town Center costs a mere 254 million, still 57 million per mile. That was included in the calculations, and don’t think it was a mistake.
There are a whole lot of politics involved in these maneuvers. First, take the ridership studies and find a nice big shredder for them. I never believe them. I’ll believe how many people actually ride it when it’s running in Norfolk.
And I know more than a few oceanfront power brokers that aren’t too keen on light rail giving tourists an easy way to leave the oceanfront for dinner or entertainment.
They kind of want the Dome site and beach restaurants to be the center of activity and tourists to keep their cars in the lots until they head home.
If light rail ever ventures across the Norfolk-Virginia Beach border, I wondered if it would end at Town Center.
And this consultant’s cost estimate just convinced me.
