Is The Tide, southeastern Virginia’s light rail system, rolling in? (Or going out?)

When I was in Norfolk last week, I decided to collect some overdue mileage on the light rail system that’s been in place for 5 years. I’ve never been enthusiastic about transit or commuter trains, mostly because I grew up in the 1960s and 1970s South, a region devoid of public transportation outside of buses. But over the years, I’ve come to appreciate and even like light rail and commuter trains as I’ve ridden them in cities from Los Angles to Frankfurt.

So, at breakfast Thursday morning at Doc Taylor’s restaurant not far from the ocean in Virginia Beach, I asked a good friend where to catch The Tide light rail system for a trip into downtown Norfolk. He said to set my GPS for Newtown Road station. I figured it might be a few blocks away. But when I did, the GPS sent me on a 20-minute drive to a dead-end station at a parking lot off Interstate 64, smack in the middle of the suburbs: I’d forgotten that the tracks don’t actually run from Norfolk into downtown Virginia Beach. A referendum on funding that extension is on the Nov. 8 ballot. I wouldn’t exactly call The Tide a train to nowhere, but I also wouldn’t call it a train to somewhere, either. It’s sort of stuck in the middle, and it certainly could be more useful, and probably draw more riders, if it were to go from one city center to the next instead of ending half way between the two. The last poll I saw showed the ballot initiative evenly split between proponents and opponents.

Ridership, as you can imagine, is a big issue, and that has drawn the ire of critics, who claim The Tide is the least patronized system of its kind in the U.S. with fewer than 5,000 weekday riders. That also equates into poor fare box recovery. But enough about that. We’ll know more next week about The Tide’s future. Here’s what it is like right now.

At Newtown Road station, I could see the old railroad and the new railroad by turning on my heels: To the west was the existing transit line, flush with concrete ties, heavy rail, catenary, and two-unit European-style light rail vehicles. To east were the rickety, worn, rails and ties of the original Norfolk Southern Railway branch that might become the route into downtown Virginia Beach. You can easily find it: The route follows power lines. This is also a bus transfer point, so at least it connects elsewhere.

I climbed on board one of the cars, a clean, gleaming, well-cared for vehicle, and we took off, at a leisurely pace, stopping 10 times on the 7.4 mile route. As the critics had said, it was lightly patronized. Near downtown Norfolk, we left the old NS right of way and soared across the former Norfolk & Western main line, hugged the parking lot at the minor league baseball stadium, and made some interesting curves in the downtown area that in the fine tradition of interurbans would be best described as corners. The tracks too me on a tour of downtown, showing me places I’ve never seen in almost 30 years of traveling to Norfolk. The other end of The Tide is at Eastern Virginia Medical Center, as you guessed, right on the side of a busy road.

I’ve been amazed at the proliferation of commuter trains, light rail systems, and streetcars in the U.S. in the last 10 years. The South has been an especially difficult challenge. Cheap land and relaxed development regulations encourage sprawl, elected officials are usually conservative with their bucks, and a seriously ingrained car culture make it tough to convince voters and officials to allocate millions for these operations. I am eager to see whether on Nov. 8, The Tide rolls in to Virginia Beach. I say it wins, but only by a sandpipers’ bill.