Regional Rail Rises From Dead: Citizen Panel Wants Trains for $2 Billion, More Buses
Posted on: Tuesday, 5 February 2008, 06:00 CST
By Bruce Siceloff, The News & Observer, Raleigh, N.C.
Feb. 5--RALEIGH -- A three-county citizens advisory group agreed Monday to push for an ambitious transit expansion that would increase local and regional bus service and spend $2 billion to launch trains across the Triangle by 2020.
Fifty-six miles of tracks would carry trains with commuters, students, shoppers and sports fans from Chapel Hill to Durham, Research Triangle Park, Cary, downtown Raleigh and North Raleigh.
Triangle voters would cover about half the cost if they agree to two new levies -- a half-penny sales tax and a $10 annual car registration fee, or their equivalent. Members of the Special Transit Advisory Commission also agreed to push for 25 percent funding from the state and 25 percent funding from Washington.
"I think we have a consensus for a 2020 plan, and a consensus that we need to find the money to make it work," said George Cianciolo of Chapel Hill, a Duke University pathologist who is co-chairman of the 29-member advisory panel.
The test of that consensus will come later this month when the group's recommendations are put in writing and circulated for public comment. Wake, Durham and Orange officials, who expect to receive the plan in early March, will be tested on their willingness to support new local taxes for transit projects that might not prove their worth for many years.
The advisory group of business and civic leaders was asked to plan transit corridors that would improve mobility options and shape urban growth patterns across a three-county suburban region that is expected to add 800,000 residents by 2030.
Everything and more
Triangle political leaders called for a fresh look after the Triangle Transit Authority's 28-mile rail project was shelved in 2006 after 11 years of planning. Federal regulators said the $810 million Raleigh-to-Durham line would not serve enough riders to warrant the taxpayers' heavy investment. Local political and financial support for the TTA project was weak.
Meeting Monday at N.C. State University, the transit advisory panel endorsed everything the TTA proposed to do -- and more.
Joe Bryan, a Knightdale Republican who is chairman of the Wake County commissioners, was taken aback by the group's ambitions.
He and other political leaders had expected the transit panel to focus first on the cities and later on a rail link between Raleigh and Durham.
"They have doubled the TTA plan," he said. "And to get it all done in 12 years, that is bold."
Wake County has other pressing needs, Bryan said. It could use a new sales tax to support school construction.
"What becomes the highest priority for an additional sales tax? Will it be transportation, or will it be education?" Bryan asked.
A big local share
He said he'll reserve judgment until he sees the details in a few weeks. It may not be easy, he said, for taxpayers to take on a big share of transit costs and accept that the federal government share will be smaller.
The group's recommendations include rough concepts for rail transit lines through the center of the region, better bus service, and shuttles that would circulate in Research Triangle Park and provide a quick connection to nearby Raleigh-Durham International Airport.
Many details are still to be worked out in a report to be drafted by Feb. 22 and approved at the advisory panel's final scheduled meeting on Feb. 29. The proposals will be delivered to mayors, city council members and county commissioners who serve on the Triangle's two regional transportation planning boards.
The panel calls for money to:
--Extend new bus lines and improve existing bus service with at least 120 new buses. The region now has about 250 public transit buses.
--Build an electric-powered light rail line from UNC Hospitals in Chapel Hill to downtown Durham. The proposed 16-mile rail has an estimated cost of $739.4 million in 2007 dollars.
--Build the TTA's proposed tracks for self-propelled diesel rail cars from Duke Medical Center through Durham and Research Triangle Park to northwest Cary. The planned 19.7-mile line has an estimated cost of $579.6 million.
--Run the same diesel rail cars from northwest Cary to downtown Raleigh and then north to Durant Road in North Raleigh. This 20.6-mile line would cost an estimated $733.9 million.
The first recommendations focus on transit service to be started by 2020. But the advisory commission's final recommendations are expected to include more bus, rail and streetcar proposals to be planned through 2035.
The panel's discussions about better bus service have focused on more routes for outlying towns and new express buses that would entice commuters to park their cars.
Dan Coleman, a Southeast Raleigh community leader, said he wanted more assurances that Triangle bus improvements would benefit poor people and others who depend on on public transit service.
"This is an issue between the need rider and the choice rider," Coleman said. "I don't think the need rider in Raleigh is necessarily getting the best service they can right now."
Leaders of the group drew optimism from recent transit success in Charlotte -- where riders, voters and developers are on board with the city's expanded bus and rail service. Investors have started or planned $1.8 billion in new projects along Charlotte's first rail line, which has enjoyed heavier ridership than expected since it opened in November. Mecklenburg County's transit sales tax was endorsed 70 percent to 30 percent in a recent referendum.
"This is relatively affluent area and an affluent nation," Cianciolo said. "We have to solve our problems now rather than pass it on to the next generation to do 20 or 30 years down the road. So I think it's very important for people to take a look at this and say we can do it."
bruce.siceloff@newsobserver.com or (919)829-4527
-----
To see more of The News & Observer, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.newsobserver.com.
Copyright (c) 2008, The News & Observer, Raleigh, N.C.
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.
Source: The News & Observer
User Comments (0)
RSS Feeds