Carter Wrenn is not optimistic about a transit plan.
In a post on Talking about Politics, the Republican political consultant notes that a Speical Transit Advisory Commission is studying trains and buses as a mass transit plan for the Triangle. But he argues they intentionally left out how to pay for it.
Wrenn says this reminds him of the Triangle Transit Authority's 1995 plan:
This sounds more and more like the old TTA: Sell everyone on the sizzle – then worry about the money later. Instead of asking: 'What can we afford? And what is a reasonable cost to pay for a mass transit system with a limited number of riders?'
He says the state should figure out how to pay for a system first, then design it.
One quibble: The TTA plan was not technically "light rail," which denotes lighter trains that use overhead electrical power — think trolleys — but a commuter rail running on traditional tracks.
Comments
Re: Wrenn on mass transit
November 12, 2007 - 5:48pm — cianc002gercohen very accurately describes the approach that the Special Transit Advisory Commission (STAC)has been taking in evaluating the transit needs of the Research Triangle Region and the types of services that might be used to fulfill those needs.
What Carter Wrenn neglects to say is that the $5 billion dollar figure he throws out is an approximation of what a REGIONAL transit system might cost over the next 25-30 years, and that is assuming that the entire system is built out. This regional system would serve an area expected to have well over 2 million people. The STAC plan is to prioritize which parts of the plan should be built first in order maximize the success of each project and to get the greatest "bang for the buck".
I believe the residents of our multi-county region being studied by the STAC are wise enough to understand that to successfully compete with other regions, both nationally and globally, as we continue to grow and prosper requires that we develop a much more efficient method of moving people from one point to another. The voters of Mecklenburg County have emphatically shown that they understand the importance of transit to their future growth and, when the time comes, I believe the leaders and citizens of the Research Triangle Region will do the same.
Re: Wrenn on mass transit
November 12, 2007 - 3:18pm — gercohenCarter says:
"Last Tuesday, voters across North Carolina overwhelmingly voted down a series of tax increases which promoters said would pay for schools. Maybe, before the ‘STAC’ goes too far, we ought to put raising taxes to subsidize a $5 billion mass transit boondoggle on the ballot to see how it fares."
What he totally omitted from his analysis was a referendum in Mecklenburg County last week where voters decided by a 70-30 margin to continue a special tax used JUST for mass transit. All the defeated referenda had NO legal constarints on how the money was to be used.
The voters had before them a 25 year specific plan to build a series of five specific mass transit corridor with light rail, commuter rail, streetcars, and bus rapid transit.
The Special Transit Committee did not intentionally leave out paying for the plan. It decided on a strategy to first design a system it thought would effectively serve the region's needs, then see how much it would cost.
At that point, an intelligent decision could be made on putting that plan up for a vote, paring it down, or dropping it.
Carter suggests that a plan be funded without knowing what it is. Isn't that what he told us resulted in defeat of all the other referenda?