Slash fares, raise subsidies for The Tide

That is what will happen should Hampton Roads Transit, the region's public transit authority, bows to pressure from the media.

An editorial in the August 24 edition of The Virginian-Pilot calls for HRT to slash fares from $1.50 to 50 cents for a one-way ride on The Tide, Norfolk's 7-mile light rail commuter line.

Slashfares on Norfolk's Tide. It's time to free The Tide. 

“Well said @PilotOpinion,” Tweeted Philip Shucet, former CEO of HRT. “First, create demand; fill the seats. Then, let demand set the price.”

Sounds like sound economic policy. Yet as we know economics is a dismal science and deals in theories, often influenced by politics.

The Pilot's editorial writers believe HRT should focus more on increasing ridership than obsessing about financial targets. They also believe HRT can raise fares when ridership attains a certain level, though that threshold isn't mentioned in the editorial.

This is all well and good.

But let's remember who actually pays for the operation and maintenance of light rail in Norfolk. The Tide isn't a shared expense. It isn't shared by other cities in the region, even though its residents use it, supposedly.

Norfolk's tax payers pay for it. Norfolk's residents pay for it with fees, charges and taxes. No one else does. It is considered a Public Good. It is not.

The Tide is a Political Good.

Norfolk's elected officials approved $5.25 million for light rail this year. What about next year and the year after that? No wonder other cities have been reluctant to assume this yearly cost.

Light rail was pushed and promoted and promulgated by former City Council Member, Randy Wright, and supported by the rest of City Council.

Wright revels in his moniker, The Father of Light Rail. But Wright, sensing opportunity where opportunity exists, got appointed as the deputy director of the Virginia Lottery, certainly less of a gamble than light rail. 

The Tide was politically expedient, not practically expedient. But politicians aren't known for being practical. They are known though for being political.

And The Tide was a political decision.

Proponents prefer to promote The Tide, which ends and begins in Norfolk, as a starter line. Starter for what?

Virginia Beach dithers over another study and another route while Chesapeake, like a tentative bride, dips its toe in the water yet retreats when someone challenges if the city will pay for a study. Meanwhile, The Public gathers and goes rah-rah about a link to Old Dominion University.

It seems that the more we talk the more nothing gets done.

Deja vu.

Let us agree that if fares were slashed to the magical number of 50 cents, ridership will climb. Yet if fares are slashed, the amount of money to keep the The Tide huffing and puffing and whistling while it works will fall.

Who will fill the hole?

Certainly not the residents of Virginia Beach. Certainly not the much maligned citizens of Portsmouth and certainly not the happy and boring residents living in Chesapeake.

Somehow, Norfolk will ask more of its citizens. How isn't the question. We know how. Why is the question. Why why why?

But other questions should be asked and answered.

How long will it take before fares are raised again?

How much money will Norfolk have to pay in addition to what it pays each year to keep The Tide running?

You can't give away something for nothing or for a fraction of the cost and then expect to charge for it later. Newspapers learned this too late in the game and are suffering for it. Many newspapers adopted the model and then abandoned it after they lost readers.

In an attempt to bolster its revenues, The Pilot began charging for online news earlier this year. Yet the parent company, Landmark Media Enterprise LLC, is dumping employees right and left and cutting expenses.

You might ask what this has to do with The Tide. It does.

Nothing is free. Someone, somewhere, pays.

Will it be you?