After some confusion on Orange County's position, plans for the light-rail line between Chapel Hill and Durham got unanimous approval this morning from a bi-county transportation committee.
Today's vote for a "Locally Preferred Alternative" route keeps the project on schedule to apply for a federal grant this year. It also moves the project along to another round of public hearings, on environmental effects, in the spring.
Light-rail lovers may be disappointed, but fiscal realists seem more likely to approve of a simple decision by Wake County Manager David Cooke to separate the region's ambitious bus-and-train plan into two packages: "core transit" and "extended transit" (see today's Road Worrier column, with reader discussion).
Wake commissioners had a good chat about this at a meeting in Raleigh Monday. Tonight in Chapel Hill, the Orange County commissioners will follow suit. Both counties are considering whether to hold a half-cent sales tax referendum in November 2012, like the one approved by Durham voters last week.
Wake can afford to promise voters that a proposed half-cent sales tax would make possible a big "core transit" package, Cooke said. Bus service would nearly double in five years, and Wake and Durham could get new rush-hour commuter trains rolling within eight years.
Light rail? Not so much. ... [MORE]
The latest proposal for a light-rail route through downtown Raleigh would veer into the central business district with service for commuters in the state government complex.
But it wouldn't go south of Morgan Street or east of Wilmington Street. Transit planners say each of the routes still in consideration is a combination of benefits and shortcomings (see today's Road Worrier column with reader comments).
The Raleigh City Council plans a 90-minute workshop session Aug. 1 at 5:30 p.m. with its Passenger Rail Task Force, which recommended the new route known (sorry!) as the D6A Hybrid. Then at 7 p.m., a public hearing to receive citizen comments.
The city announcement says only the D6A-Hybrid route will be discussed at the Aug. 1 workshop and hearing. But Eric Lamb, the city transportation planning director, who favors a different route, says all options will be on the Aug. 1 agenda.
Read more about transit route options at ourtransitfuture.com.
A 25-year plan to beef up bus service and launch rail transit service for Durham County won approval by two regional boards today, clearing the way for a key vote expected next Monday.
The Durham County commissioners are expected to decide Monday whether to schedule a referendum in October on a proposed half-cent increase in the local sales tax. It would generate an estimated $17.3 million a year to pay most of the local share of capital costs for proposed new buses, a light rail line from Chapel Hill to Durham, and a commuter train service from Durham through Research Triangle Park to Cary, Raleigh and Garner. (See June 13 story with details, map and reader comments.) ... [MORE]
Commuter trains and light-rail trains eventually -- and lots more buses right away. That's the heart of newly detailed 25-year plans for building up public transportation across the Triangle. (See today's story with reader comments.)
You can learn more and express your opinion at public information sessions planned in Orange and Durham counties this week, and a public hearing in Durham tonight.
Wake County's plan is running a few months behind, but it will share the emphasis laid out in the new Orange and Durham transit finance plans: If voters approve a half-cent transit sales tax, they will see a quick increase in service with more frequent buses, new bus routes to outlying towns, more service to major job centers, longer bus hours on evenings and weekends, and nicer bus stop amenities. ... [MORE]
Five public information sessions are planned over the next two weeks to outline new financial plans for proposed bus, light rail and commuter rail transit improvements in Orange and Durham counties.
The Durham Chapel Hill Carrboro Metropolitan Planning Organization will sponsor the meetings to discuss project plans and outline proposals to pay for them with a combination of state and federal funds and revenues from a proposed half-cent local sales tax.
The meetings will be held:
- June 7, 4-6:30 p.m., Southwest Library, 3605 Shannon Road, Durham.
- June 8, 4-7 p.m., Holton Career and Resource Center Senior Room, 401 N. Driver St., Durham.
- June 14, 4-7 p.m., Town Hall, 405 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., Chapel Hill.
- June 15, 3-6 p.m., North Regional Library, 221 Milton Road, Durham.
- June 16, 4-7 p.m., Orange County Library, 137 W. Margaret Lane, Hillsborough.
If county commissioners agree, voters in both counties will be asked to approve the transit sales tax in a referendum this fall or next year.
The draft plans and more details will be posted online.
UNC's Kenan-Flagler business school wants to expand its Paul J. Rizzo Conference Center at Meadowmont, but it may have to choose between cutting specimen trees, building on a steep slope, creating the need for a railroad bridge or obstructing the view from a historic house it owns.
The Rizzo center provides a revenue stream for the school, as it hosts professional conferences with on-site meals and lodging.
UNC presented a concept plan for Phase III of the conference center Monday night. Phases I and II consist of three buildings, including the historic Dubose House, totaling 161,000 square feet and 120 guest rooms. Phase III would add another 90,000 square feet with 80 guest rooms.
A corridor planned for a future light rail line connecting UNC to the rest of the Triangle runs through the middle of the site. To avoid building on a historic graveyard or on steep slopes, Kenan-Flagler proposes parking on one side of the rail corridor and the new building on the other.
But Town Council members expressed concern that would force the Triangle Transit Authority to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to build a bridge over the access road between the building and the parking lot.
President Obama’s Federal Transit Administration has reversed a strict cost-effectiveness standard, instituted under the Bush administration, that helped kill Triangle Transit’s light-rail plan in 2006.
Now, when the feds review competing funding proposals for big transit projects, they’ll give more weight to “livability” values. Measuring more than improved commuter travel times and the cost of providing this improvement, the FTA also will look for environmental, community and economic benefits.
"We're going to free our flagship transit capital program from long-standing requirements that have allowed us only to green-light projects that meet very narrow cost and performance criteria," Ray LaHood, Obama’s transportation secretary, told a Washington audience last week.
"Instead, as we evaluate major transit projects going forward, we'll consider all the factors that help communities reduce their carbon footprint, spur economic activity and relieve congestion."
He listed six criteria for federal New Starts transit project funding:
Now with less restrictive federal standards, more cities should be able to qualify for federal funding. A new rail transit question is: Will there be enough federal money to go around? ... [MORE]
David King, Triangle Transit's general manager, spoke to the editorial board this week, answering questions about why there's still no transit stop planned for RDU and about how transit paths can shape growth in a good way, among other things.
Click "read more" to listen to some snippets from the interview. In the RDU soundbite, King is talking about John Brantley of RDU. Also, there's a blog post on transit written by editorial board member Allen Torrey.
