Surprisingly, even though Chesapeake and Virginia Beach have shunned the concept of mass transit in the past, they both have transit plans in their Comprehensive Plan. Virginia Beach's, of course, includes the current Norfolk Southern line all the way to Birdneck Rd. Chesapeake's, which intrigued me, includes two rail lines designated for mass transit. Their updated Master Plan even titles them as 'light rail.' Of the two designated corridors, one goes down the city line between the Shipyard and St Julian and continues all the way to the regional airport and beyond. The other corridor takes the rail line east of the Expressway and goes all the way to NC and beyond. Chesapeake's light rail study, which finished in 2003, decided that at the time, light rail probably would not work and it suggested that the city make an effort to increase density along the proposed lines. I'm not sure if anything has been done yet to accomplish these goals but at least its a start.
Purple=Current Norfolk Light Rail
Green=Proposed Naval Base Extension
Red=Virginia Beach Comprehensive Plan
Blue=Chesapeake Comprehensive Plan
5 comments:
that's cool. i just hope NN will go for LRT instead of BRT. why are they even trying to weigh BRT with LRT? they know LRT is less expensive.
the BRT is less expensive initially. some places will go with BRT to start. they use dedicated bus corridors so that traffic does not affect it. this corridor could be easily switched at some point in the future if demand warrants it. I think that VA Beach will have to go with BRT as an extension of the norfolk LRT. The federal money they want requires that they have a certain percentage of people on the bus. I think if they seriously upgrade their bus system and run a BRT down the area that the rail line sits on, it will drive the ridership up enough to warrant the light rail
what about NN? u think they're gonna go for BRT?
im hoping that they will go for the gold with LRT so that it will be connectible with Norfolk's. I have requested the status of the project and hope to get the info soon. i will pass it along when i get it
ok sounds good. i hope so too. it'll be a good start for the Peninsula just like The Tide is a good start for Southside. It's cool if u don't get the info. I read the CEO's letter and he said that all public info is on hold so, lol, if they don't give it up to u to share with me, it's fine. the updates on the CEO letter is good enough. i'm sure we'll all hear something soon. As far as u gentlemen on the UAC, u might hear something coming Wed.
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