THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, June 19, 1996 TAG: 9606190006
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A10 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Letter
LENGTH: 32 lines
I am totally in favor of a light-rail transit system to help ease the traffic congestion in the Virginia Beach-Norfolk area.
However, the proposed line from the Virginia Beach Convention Center to Waterside is not what we need, and certainly not 20 years from now. It may be a beautiful tourist attraction and city monument, but who will use it?
To move tourists between those points, you can run a lot of fancy buses for a fraction of the price of the LRT. Have the planners looked at, or sat in, I-64 and 44 at 7 a.m. or 5 p.m. lately?
How will the light-rail line help that? Citizens will find and demand solutions long before 20 years are up, even if they have to move away.
What citizens need is a line to get from Ocean Lakes or Kempsville to Norfolk Naval Station and back! Have the planners done any commuter surveys to see what the people need and the most-traveled routes to get from point A to B?
I am additionally concerned as to the cost-benefit model of the proposed route: $376 million for tourists and a small percentage of upscale commuters? Twenty years from now, those upscale employees will probably be working out of their homes and not need that route.
A word of warning also in that regard: Look at the bus riders' suit in Los Angeles, where the majority of transit funds are going to the rail system, benefiting a small percentage of riders vs. deteriorating service to the majority of riders and payers.
EVERETT RATZLAFF
Virginia Beach, June 11, 1996 by CNB