OVERVIEW
Residents, businesses and visitors of Hampton Roads will benefit from improved transit service with the development of the new HRT Southside Facility in Virginia Beach. The new state-of-the-art facility will allow the region to significantly improve transit operations, reduce operating costs, create jobs, and increase ridership while preserving and protecting the environment.
The facility supports recent enhancements to transit service with 13 regional backbone routes across the HRT service district to connect citizens with key employment destinations. Combined with other express and commuter routes, this service is known as the 757 Express Program that provides 15-minute service frequencies. Transit users have responded positively with increased ridership by more than 30%.
AT A GLANCE
- Enhances 757 Express
- Capacity for 100 buses and 16 seasonal trolleys
- Charging infrastructure for electric buses
- Operating cost savings of $650,000 per year
- Estimated more than 6,700 new weekday riders
- Estimated more than 7,000 new weekend riders
- Creates 120 new highly skilled jobs
- State of the art Net Zero Energy ready
LETTERS OF SUPPORT
Review the letters of support from federal, state, regional and local leaders interested in the improved transit service with the development of the new HRT Southside Facility in Virginia Beach.
PURPOSE AND NEED
The new Southside Facility is integral to the 757 Express Program. The enhanced transit service requires additional buses added to the existing fleet to run the increased frequencies of service. HRT’s two existing bus operations and maintenance facilities serving the southside are at capacity or too far away to serve the eastern and southern portions of our service district efficiently.
The new state-of-the-art facility will be strategically located and allow for enhanced bus service, improved operational efficiency, reduced costs, creation of jobs, and increased ridership, while preserving and protecting the environment. The new facility will also lead the way for cleaner air in the region, by installing infrastructure to support a zero-emissions bus fleet. The addition of this new facility will lead to the creation of new, highly skilled jobs tasked with the care and maintenance of a fleet of new buses.
The facility will have the capacity to maintain and store 100 buses and 16 trolleys, enabling the region to be served more efficiently by positioning buses closer to where they are needed. It will provide year-round maintenance operations to support bus routes that improve mobility, increase access to jobs, and connect to tourism and leisure destinations. By providing more robust, consistent and reliable transit service, the Southside Facility Virginia Beach will also help continue economic development growth.
LOCATION
Corporate Landing Business Park
HRT partnered with the City of Virginia Beach to locate a site for a new bus maintenance facility. After a collaborative search, the City and HRT identified a site in the Corporate Landing Business Park, a location that aligns with the City’s Comprehensive Plan. The campus is large enough to support the long-term needs of the agency and partners in the surrounding area.
LOCATION
Corporate Landing Business Park
HRT partnered with the City of Virginia Beach to locate a site for a new bus maintenance facility. After a collaborative search, the City and HRT identified a site in the Corporate Landing Business Park, a location that aligns with the City’s Comprehensive Plan. The campus is large enough to support the long-term needs of the agency and partners in the surrounding area.
PROJECT SCHEDULE
PROJECT COST AND FUNDING
The total cost of the project is approximately $130M and is being funded through Federal and State sources, as well as through the Hampton Roads Regional Transit Fund (HRRTF).
PROJECT BENEFITS
Improved Fleet Efficiencies, Operations and Cost Savings
Located in southeastern Virginia Beach, the new facility will eliminate the need to deploy buses from Norfolk to areas that serve eastern Virginia Beach, the Virginia Beach oceanfront and Chesapeake. This more efficient distribution of the bus fleet will result in fuel and labor cost savings and reduce wear and tear on the buses equipment. This efficiency amounts to approximately 91,000 fewer miles per year of positioning buses without passengers, and accounts for an operational cost savings of at least $650,000 per year.
Ridership Increase
As a result of service improvements from the 757 Express program made possible with the new facility, ridership is expected to increase significantly. After full realization of service improvements, there are estimated to be over 6,700 new weekday riders, and over 7,000 new weekend riders across all routes served by HRT.
Environmental Sustainability
The new Southside Facility in Virginia Beach will deliver bus service that has zero emissions at the tailpipe, and with the use of offshore wind, will be zero emissions at the generation point. These are buses powered by the wind. They will be housed in a state-of-the-art net zero energy ready facility, the first net zero energy electric bus maintenance facility in the country. Net zero facilities generate more energy than they use. The 12-acre campus’ energy needs are planned to be met on-site in the future with solar power. Achieving net zero energy will be accomplished by using an on-site solar system, high-efficiency building insulation techniques, a geothermal heating system, and energy efficient maintenance equipment.
E-NEWS
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