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CASE STUDIES Norfolk Tide Light Rail (Continued)
Economic Analysis The final price tag was just under $318 million which was less than the $338 million they thought it would take as of 2010, but significantly more than the original proposal closer to $200 million. This is around $45 million per mile of track. Fortunately, the funding structure was very flexible to facilitate the enormous overrun. FTA initially authorized more money than it was expected to take which provided extra contingency funds. It also saw a significant slowdown just as the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act was being rolled out and saw some assistance due to that. The remaining balance was covered by the city of Norfolk issuing additional bonds. However, as a direct result, two city council positions, both HRT board members, lost re-election in 2010. Overall, the Tide was funded from 3 sources. The largest was FTA’s New Starts program, which provided a $123 million grant for the endeavor. Federal dollars also came in the form of matching funds for the Surface Transportation Program, which was supplemented by state money as authorized by both the Commonwealth Transportation Board representing Virginia as a whole in addition to the Hampton Roads Metropolitan Planning Organization, representing the local interest. STP money totaled around $40 million. Finally, the city provided over $44 million in funding raised from municipal bonds, secured with Urban Construction Program funding. This mixture of funds demonstrates the crucial nature of the state’s involvement and support of the project.
The Urban Construction Initiative is a state-level funding system to provide local polities with funds to build and maintain their roads. However, these funds have also been approved to go towards public transit projects and to secure bonds, allowing Norfolk to make use of these traditionally auto-oriented funds for their light-rail project. The Commonwealth Transportation Board also prioritized it highly enough that no special allocations were needed from the state assembly and it was incorporated into the state’s transportation budget. Operations In terms of operations, however, it is a regional effort. The entire HRT system utilizes the same fare payment system and tickets are purchased for any HRT service for $1.50 one-way. However, as a result of this practice, all fare revenue is pooled together and distributed to services according to funding guidelines. As a result, 11% of the operating costs of the Tide are covered by fares, despite ticket kiosks at Tide stations being some of the most active in the system. Recently, this has been altered somewhat to offer a ticket specific to the Tide but information on its efficacy is limited at this time. The remainder of the costs is split between the communities in the HRT network as they share the costs of any other HRT service. Though the Tide is currently exclusive to Norfolk, it is looking at expansions into a number of communities and is integrated into a much more option-rich plan in the Hampton Roads Regional Transit Vision Plan.