NORFOLK -- Light rail trains will be running in the spring or summer of 2011, HRT's new CEO and president Phil Shucet told Norfolk City Council members Tuesday.
It's the first estimate from HRT for completion of The Tide since a series of cost overruns and construction delays were revealed in December.
The project is 61 percent complete with major construction expected to be "substantially complete" in July.
Shucet said it's still too soon to estimate how much it will cost to complete the project.
Shucet, on the job for a week, said that number will be ready next week and made public at the HRT commission meeting on Feb. 18.
"It will be a number everyone at HRT will own," Shucet told council members.
Shucet then met with Virginia Beach City Council members to ask for $244,800 in city funds to match a federal grant offer.
The money would go toward a $6.63 study underway examining the feasibility of extending The Tide from Newtown Road in Norfolk to the Virginia Beach Oceanfront.
City Council members cringed at the request.
"We just don't have the money," Councilman Bob Dyer said.
But Virginia Beach may have no choice but to pay for the federal match for to finish the study.
A draft is scheduled to be complete in summer 2011.
"What happens if we don't pay?" Councilwoman Rosemary Wilson asked.
"I honestly don't know," Shucet said.
Contingency funds would cover the funding request, City Manager James Spore said.
The council is expected to vote on the request in the "next few weeks," said Mayor Will Sessoms.
