10 am: I’m here at The Ted where the Town Hall Meeting for High Speed Rail is just getting started. The space is sparsely filled with close to 100 people; lots of suits and a sprinkling of audience members that look like “regular citizens.” I’m one of only a handful of young people in the room, which is unfortunate as the ODU Provost Simpson is currently talking about how much the university has done for both students and the city of Norfolk. Obviously there’s a marked dived between the two. But hopefully this meeting will address how the latter can develop, through mass transit projects like high speed rail, ways to help attract and retain the former.

10:10 am: Interesting fact–ODU is the first LEED-certified higher education facility in Virginia.

10:15 am: “This is a defining moment in the history of Hampton Roads,” says Clyde Hoey, engineer and member of the Board of the Future of Hampton Roads. “Hampton Roads has a population of 1.7 million, the largest between New York and Miami. Yet we are not slated for development of service along the high-speed rail lines. If we do nothing, we could truly wind up being a cul-de-sac region.”

10:20 am: It looks like Representative Bobby Scott couldn’t get out of Washington today due to some major voting that is going on up there. In his place Jim Babcock is speaking on the legislative process to develop high-speed rail. “The competition for the money from federal funding programs is very, very intense,” says Babcock. “There are up to 11 corridors in place on the map. We’ve applied for the stimulus money to be a part of that. An additional $50 billion is earmarked for high-speed rail [designated by a plan by Obama]. Only 20 percent of that needs to be matched by the state.” Mr. Babcock reports that the eligibility factors mainly include building a rail that reaches 110 mph.

10:30 am: “In 2001, 18 meetings were held regarding the Southeast corridor,” says the first panelist, Admiral Ray Taylor, president of the Future of Hampton Roads. “Hampton Roads was not a part of a single one of them. We don’t have people involved in any of the processes that are taking place.” There seems to be something of “a family feud,” he explains, between the Peninsula and the Southside as to where an extension from the Southeast corridor line will travel.

10:35 am: “There are about 70 metropolitan areas that are on one corridor or another,” explains Taylor. “This list shows that there are three regions that will not get main line service. One is Phoenix, out in the desert…who cares? One is Denver, out in the mountains. And that leaves Hampton Roads as potentially the most important area that is not included. The fact that we have not been a part of the meetings for the last ten meetings leaves us extremely far behind, not to say bankrupt. There are two ways to repair [this]: One is to get 500 people fired up on the issue. The other is to shift the process to the MPO [Metropolitan Planning Organization], which has been going through a wonderful reform process.”

This reform includes the election of Will Sessoms, mayor of Virginia Beach, as chairman; and Molly Ward, mayor of Hampton, as vice-chairman.

10:45 am: Here is a map for the Southeast high speed rail corridor, from sehsr.org:

10:50 “Light rail could connect us to a main line that may not necessarily come straight into Hampton Roads,” says Louis Guy, engineer, retired director of Norfolk Public Works, and notable Norfolk public voice. “For instance, in Paris the main line comes to the outskirts of the city at Charles de Gaulle Airport. The bottom line is that Hampton Roads was hurt by a bad decision 40 or 50 years ago that left us with one Interstate Highway. Fifty years later we are being told by the Secretary of Virginia Transportation and local leaders that we missed the boat. If we believe that our children and generations to come deserve a better life, a better place to live in, we cannot miss this opportunity again. Paper decisions can be changed.” Guy explains in complicated detail several alternative solutions to bring high-speed rail closer to this area: a bend in the line, a loop around Hampton Roads, a spur from the main line.

Please come back to view images of each of these alternates, which are at the heart of this debate.

11 am: “We’ve been asleep at the switch because no one really thought it was going to happen, maybe except for a few radicals,” says Brad Face, member of the group Virginians for High-Speed Rail. “This goes back centuries. But we could be the perfect Southern end for the high speed rail in the Northeast corridor, as Boston is Northern end. It makes sense for us.

“We need to take what they give us and go from there. Decisions will be asked from us in the next few months. And this process will continue into the next couple years. Frankly the stars are aligned for us. Suddenly this has become a hot topic on a federal level. And we are close to the existing corridor. We’ve got the military and all the defense organizations. The number of guaranteed riders is undeniable.”

Face seems to be arguing against the idea of light rail connecting the cities off of the main line. And sensibly he is arguing in favor (as most of these panelists are) for a single-ticket ride through the area. “Getting from Washington to Suffolk on three different trains is not so appealing to me.

“We are fully capable of fumbling this,” he concludes. “I implore you, as someone who loves this region and is a student of our failures, let’s not focus on what we could’ve done 50 years ago, but what we can do in the next 20.”

11:20 am: “The most important benefit of high speed rail connection is business access,” explains Gil Yochum, professor of economics at Old Dominion University. He also lists reduced congestion (travel time) and potential reduction in air pollution. “The Southside stands to lose more than the Peninsula if we do not get this. The area is an interconnected mesh. You put a plant in Norfolk, it affects everywhere from Williamsburg to North Carolina. But the Peninsula could potentially break away if it is so closely connected with Richmond, which could be disastrous for the Southside.”

11:30 am: In response to the question, “How shuttle-ready are we if we get this line connected here?” Face responds, “This isn’t a gimme. In a year or two from go, we could have service up and running.” Guy responds, “A 35 mph line would be shuttle-ready. I don’t think we’re shuttle-ready at all for a high-speed rail line.” Taylor responds, “It’s a complex issue because we’re talking about many kinds of rail here. But if we look 25 years from now, we’ve got to start thinking about getting ourselves in the mix somehow now. I would promote every single possible effort to get the next little thing. Incrementally is going to be how it’s going to be built. If you pursue the too short-term without putting a stake in the ground for the endgame, you may never get to the long-term.” Responds Yochum, “Anything less than high-speed rail is not worth our time in my economic opinion. Time is the issue.”

11:45 am: “My wife traveled by AmTrak train from the Peninsula,” says Guy, “and I told her she would be shot. We need to have high-speed rail, light rail and AmTrak options in the area.”

“I don’t know what the AmTrak ridership on the Peninsula is…” starts Hoey. An audience member answers, “In 2008, it was 260,000.” “Well, there you go,” Hoey responds. “It’s nowhere near where it should be. I was at a meeting the other day at which only two people had taken the train in the last year.”

“For every truck that you move to train, you save about 17 cents to the mile on highway repair,” adds Hoey.

To voice your opinion, you can direct comments and questions to:

Charles M Badger, Director
Ref: Rail to Hampton Roads
Virginia Department of Rail & Public Transportation
600 East Main Street, Suite 2102
Richmond, VA 23219

Dwight Farmer, Executive Director
H.R. Transportation Planning Organization
Regional Building
723 Woodlake Drive
Chesapeake, VA 23320

The next meeting to discuss high-speed rail is next Friday from 11 to 1:30 at the HRTPO building, located at 723 Woodlake Drive in Chesapeake. If you care about this region finally getting the right plan going to connect ourselves to the already planned high-speed corridors, please come to this meeting and make your voice heard.