Following one or both tracks to Virginia Beach?

Virginia Beach:

“Since proposals began landing on their desks last year, city officials have been weighing whether to extend traditional light rail into Virginia Beach or go with a magnetic levitation system, even though that technology is unproven. Now some officials are thinking, ‘Why not do both?’

A new idea favored by some city staff and council members would involve extending The Tide from Newtown Road to Town Center and creating a Union Station-like transportation hub there, while also moving forward with a magnetic-levitation, or maglev, pilot project at the Oceanfront. The hope is that, if maglev succeeded, it would eventually come to Town Center and branch out to the city’s naval bases, the Norfolk airport and Chesapeake.

Even though any concrete decision on a new mass transit system is far from being made, the dual approach is favored by Deputy City Manager Dave Hansen, Vice Mayor Louis Jones and At-Large Councilman Brad Martin. It’s helped along by the fact that American Maglev Technology and ACS Industrial Services, which are behind the maglev proposal, have offered to pay for the pilot project and, if it failed, remove the tracks.”

~ Writes Kathy Adams of the The Virginian-Pilot

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