Question about rail line in VA Beach

[cody810]

I am visiting VA beach today and while driving I noticed a rail line crossing S. Oceana Blvd. I looked it up on google and found an article about it possibly being used for light rail. So I was wondering, do they still run trains on the line or is it abandoned?

Link to article: http://hamptonroads.com/2009/03/40-mill ... idor-beach

[elbow]

i lived in va beach for a month and there is no train traffic whatsoever inside v.b. that line has long been abandoned and in very bad condition. hampton roads transit is fighting with politics and voters over a light rail project from the ocean front to downtown norfolk, but thats not happening this decade. There is traffic in and out of norfolk, portsmouth and chesapeake. Its all NS in norfolk, and CSX shares port facilities in portsmouth and I think chesapeake but I'm not sure. There is also the Norfolk-Portsmouth Belt LIne terminal railroad that does alot of switching for both RR as well as the Chesapeake and Ablemarle which is a short line that runs south to elizabeth city, Nc. There is also a Eastern Shore RR yard within the Little Creek amphibious base in norfolk that runs (or at least used to) rail barges across the bay to the eastern shore of virginia. Well, thats all i know, but yeah, nothing in Vb

[Bobby S]

Was this ROW ever used for passenger service to the beach? If not what was it's purpose to end so close to the ocean? Was there a station there?

[Railman1396]

I believe that it used to run to to Fort Story, or should I say had a branch line that ran to it. Oh, wait, that is the old branch that ran off the now Bay Coast, I think it ends at a paper plant now.

There was also some industry along the way, and branch that ran to Naval Air Station Oceana. There was a concrete plant on Sykes Rd, near the Pick-n-Pull that received stone until just a few years ago, then when they shut down, NS quit operations on the line.